Ida B. Wells (1862-1931)
A prominent journalist, Wells was also a suffragette and fought just as fervently for women’s rights as she did for civil rights. She formed the first suffrage organization for black women, the Alpha Suffrage Club of Chicago, and is considered one of the first American women to keep her last name after marriage.
Like many of her peers, her advocacy for women was met with open racism from white feminists. At the 1913 Women’s Suffrage Parade in Washington, D.C., white organizers demanded that black women march at the back of the demonstration. When an Illinois organizer told Wells she could only march if she did so with an all-black delegation, the famed anti-lynching activist said that she refused to join unless she could march under the Illinois banner.
And march under that banner she did. (Article)
