Her reporting in the newspaper covered incidents of racial segregation and inequality. Soon, Wells co-owned and wrote for the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight newspaper. Later, moving with some of her siblings to Memphis, Tennessee, Wells found better pay as a teacher. She went to work and kept the rest of the family together with the help of her grandmother. At the age of 14, she lost both her parents and her infant brother in the 1878 yellow fever epidemic. īorn into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi, Wells was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation during the American Civil War.

Wells dedicated her career to combating prejudice and violence, advocating for African-American equality-especially that of women-and was a prominent Black figure. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (J– March 25, 1931) was an American investigative journalist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement.

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