Ida B. Wells-Barnett

Object Details

Artist

Sallie E. Garrity, c. 1862 - 1907

Sitter

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, 16 Jul 1862 - 25 Mar 1931

Exhibition Label

In 1884, the journalist Ida B. Wells filed a lawsuit against the Chesapeake, Ohio and Southwestern Railroad after being forcibly removed from the ladies’ train car because she was black. Wells, who had been traveling from Memphis to the nearby town of Woodstock, won the trial in Shelby County but lost the appeal at the Tennessee Supreme Court. After this, she focused on advocating for the civil rights of African Americans—including suffrage.

In 1913, at the suffrage parade in Washington, D.C., she famously refused to march in the back with the other African American women. Instead, she marched at the front of the Illinois suffrage delega- tion. Her gumption distinguished her. Among the most famous black authors of the late nineteenth century, Wells protested lynching and made a crusade to have it federally outlawed. In 1892, she denounced the purported rationale behind it: “Nobody . . . believes the old threadbare lie that Negro men rape white women.”

En 1884, la periodista Ida B. Wells demandó a las compañías ferroviarias Chesapeake & Ohio y Southwestern luego de ser expulsada a la fuerza del vagón de damas por ser de raza negra. Wells, quien viajaba de Memphis al cercano pueblo de Woodstock, ganó el juicio en Shelby County, pero perdió la apelación en el Tribunal Supremo de Tennessee. Desde entonces se dedicó a defender los derechos civiles de los afroamericanos, incluido el sufragio.

En 1913, durante el desfile sufragista en Washington, D.C., causó revuelo cuando se negó a marchar en la parte de atrás, con las demás afroamericanas, y se colocó al frente de la delegación de Illinois. Siempre se distinguió por sus agallas. Fue una de las autoras negras más famosas de fines del siglo XIX y alzó su voz contra los linchamientos, liderando una cruzada para prohibirlos mediante legislación federal. En 1892 denunció la supuesta razón para dicha práctica: “Nadie [...] cree esa mentira trillada de que los hombres negros violan a las mujeres blancas”.

Credit Line

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

c. 1893

Object number

NPG.2009.36

Restrictions & Rights

CC0

Type

Photograph

Medium

Albumen silver print

Dimensions

Image/Sheet: 13.9 x 9.8 cm (5 1/2 x 3 7/8")

Mount: 16.3 x 10.7 cm (6 7/16 x 4 3/16")

Mat: 45.7 x 35.6 cm (18 x 14")

Place

United States\Illinois\Cook\Chicago

See more items in

National Portrait Gallery Collection

National Portrait Gallery

Topic

Photographic format\Cabinet card

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett: Female

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett: Literature\Writer

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett: Journalism and Media\Journalist

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett: Journalism and Media\Editor

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett: Education and Scholarship\Educator\Teacher

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Activist\Civil rights activist

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett: Society and Social Change\Enslaved person

Portrait

Record ID

npg_NPG.2009.36

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm4760ba458-1ad1-4332-8204-273304fbbb15