Ida B. Wells

Ida B. Wells is one of the most well known and celebrated female journalists in American history. She started in journalism after the lynching of one of her good friends in Memphis. She started to investigate why black men were lynched. Investigative journalism was fairly new at the time. She wrote several columns in the local newspaper. She wrote a pamphlet in 1892 that exposed the motives behind many lynchings in the South. In response, the press office where she worked was burned to the ground, and she was forced to move to Chicago after threats of violence against her. Even after she moved, she continued to speak out against lynchings. She was also a prominent women’s rights and suffrage activist, and was involved in the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).