BILOXI – Ida B. Wells, an instrumental African American civil rights activist and journalist, was inducted Friday into the Mississippi Press Hall of Fame during the Mississippi Press Association’s 160th annual meeting.
“We are very excited by the committee’s choices for induction into the Hall of Fame this year,” George R. Turner, past president for MPA’s Board of Directors, said in a June press release. “We feel these are worthy recognitions of journalism’s significance in our state and very appropriate for our 160th year.”
Wells was part owner of the Free Speech and Headlight publication in Memphis and wrote exposés of lynchings in the South for The Chicago Inter-Ocean newspaper, according to the National Women’s History Museum website. Wells was also an instrumental advocate for women’s suffrage and equal access to education.
She was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909.
Tim Kalich, retired award winning editor and publisher of The Greenwood Commonwealth, was also inducted Friday into the hall of fame. Kalich, who retired in March 2025 after a 40-year career, served as a past president of MPA and former chair of the Mississippi Press Foundation.
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