Ida B. Wells Statue in Memphis, TN

Photo credit - courtesy of Mike Kerr

On July 16, 2021, her 159th birthday and 129 years after leaving Memphis, TN, fearing for her life, Ida B Wells is finally back and getting the recognition she deserves with a statue in her honor.

Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was an investigative journalist, civil rights leader, and activist who fought against racial discrimination, segregation, lynching and advocated for equal rights. Wells was born to an enslaved parents in Mississippi, who were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. Both her parents and young brother died when she was 16 years old. To support her family, she became a teacher and co-owned and wrote for the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee. She traveled all over the US and reported in several newspapers about racial discrimination, lynching, and other crimes that happened to black people. Revealing the truth put her life in danger, and after her newspaper got burnt, she relocated to Chicago. There, she got married, raised her six kids, and continued her journalism, activism, anti-lynching campaign, and suffrage work.

The bronze statue stands in the new Ida B Wells Plaza on Beale and Fourth streets, adjacent to the original office of Wells’ The Free Speech and Headlight newspaper. Created by Andrea and Larry Lugar of Lugar Bronze Foundry in Eads and was funded by the public.

It is the only statue of Wells in the US, depicts her standing, wearing a dress, she looks forward, determined, her left arm is holding her speech.

Near the statue, there are three pavilions with her roles in Memphis inscribed on their top: educator, journalist – activism, suffragist, and entrepreneur.

Among the speakers and her descendants who attended the dedication ceremony was her great-granddaughter, Michelle Duster, who is also the President of the Ida B. Wells Foundation of Chicago who led the efforts to honor Wells with a street and a monument in Chicago. She also wrote her biography: Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells.

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379 Beale St, Memphis, TN 38103

 

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