Ida Bell Wells was born July 16, 1862 and died March 25, 1931, better known as Ida B. Wells, was an African-American journalist, abolitionist and feminist who led an anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s. She went on to found and become integral in groups striving for African-American justice.

Living in Mississippi as a African American, she had to deal with racial prejudices and were restricted by discriminatory rules and practices. She went to Shaw University, when she turned 16 she dropped out. Her mom, dad and siblings died of yellow fever. She told a county school administrator that she was 18 and landed a job as a teacher.

Things started to change in 1884, when Wells bought a first class train ticket to Nashville. The train crew told her to move to the car for African Americans but she refused. Then she was moved by forced from the train entirely, she then bit one of the men on the hand. Wells sued the railroad, winning a $500 settlement in a circuit court case. The decision was later overturned by the Tennessee Supreme Court. Because of the injustice Wells picked up a pen to write about the issues of race and politics in the south. A number of her articles were published in black newspapers and periodicals. She eventually became an owner of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight and Free Speech. As her position as a teacher she became a vocal critic of blacks only schools in the city but later was fired in 1891.