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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Ida B. Wells Film and Discussion w/ filmmaker and her grandson |
Current rating: 0 |
by Mike Lehman
(No verified email address) |
13 Feb 2001
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"Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice" a film by William Greaves, will be
shown at Allen Hall Main Lounge, 1005 W. Gregory, Urbana, Monday, February
19, at 9pm. The filmmaker, William Greaves, and Ida B. Wells' grandson,
Benjamin Duster, will be leading a discussion following the film
screening. |
About Ida B. Wells:
Ida B. Wells was an investigative journalist, educator and human rights
activist who exposed and fought to stop the lynching of African Americans.
Wells' parents, freed from slavery shortly after her birth, died when she
was 14. To support her brother and sisters, she became a schoolteacher.
While she was traveling to a school in Memphis, Tennessee, a train
conductor insisted she move from the parlor car to the smoking car, the
one reserved for blacks. She refused; he grabbed her wrist; she bit him;
and Wells brought a suit against the railroad and won. Later, however, the
state court overruled the decision.
Her teaching career ended after she wrote a series of articles denouncing
the education provided to Black children. She then became part owner of
the Memphis Star newspaper where she wrote searing attacks against the
practice of lynching. As a result of these and other articles that
challenged the attacks of whites against blacks, her newspaper was sacked
and destroyed. But Wells continued the fight, carrying her message to
Europe and throughout the country. More than any other single individual,
Ida B. Wells' efforts were responsible for the worldwide condemnation of
lynching that forced the federal government to intercede and take actions
to protect the rights of black people in the south.
She was one of the founders of the NAACP. A crusader for women's rights,
she organized the first suffrage club among black women. She also
organized the Ida B. Wells Women's Club, which established Chicago's first
kindergarten in a black neighborhood.
Until her death in 1931, Ida B. Wells worked tirelessly for equal justice
for all people.
Contact for further info:
Laura Haber
Assistant Director of Unit One
68 Allen Hall (MC 050)
University of Illinois
1005 W. Gregory
Urbana, IL 61801
ph. (217) 244-2317
e-mail: l-haber (at) uiuc.edu |
