It was only after high school, college and two master’s degrees that C. Sade Turnipseed said she ever learned about Ida B. Wells, the black woman journalist and radical activist who was an invaluable asset in the Civil Rights Movement and the fight against injustice.
“I first heard about her seven years ago, and I was outraged I had not learned about her. I thought how is it that this is not taught about in public schools?” Turnipseed, a public historian and educator and founder of the nonprofit group, Khafre, Inc., based in Indianola, said Thursday at the Columbus Lowndes Public Library. She spoke to a group of roughly 40 people. Her talk was part of a lineup of events at the library in celebration of Black History Month.
“So I did what I could to spread the word,” she said.
Turnipseed began further researching and speaking about Wells as a way to help spread the word of the importance of Wells and other black figures of historical importance who never received their dues, and historically have gone unspoken of in many public school settings.
She began with a brief history of Wells. Born enslaved in Holly Springs, Wells lost her parents to illness as a teen, and moved the family to Memphis near family and to become a teacher to help care for her six siblings.
It was in 1884, before Plessy v. Ferguson legalized racial segregation, that Wells first rebelled against injustice against blacks who were facing continued and worsening cruelty after being freed from slavery in 1865. She was asked to give up her seat on the train for a white passenger and move to the smoking car (or the “Jim Crow” car, said Turnipseed). She refused, and was dragged from the train by three men, said Turnipseed. The white passengers on the train applauded, she added.
But it had a monumental ending, Turnipseed said; Wells sued the railroad company and won a $500 judgment.
“This was the first case of its kind in the states,” she said of its momentousness, even though the ruling was later overturned.
Wells began her foray into writing after this, speaking out against white supremacy and was very well received.
But it was an incident during the late 1800s — when mob rule and violence against blacks had increased at an “alarming rate” — that really spurred Wells to action, Turnipseed said.
In March 1892, owners of the People’s Grocery, a cooperative venture near Memphis owned by prominent black men, were mobbed by white men looking to run them out of town. Three of the business owners — Thomas Moss, Will Stewart and Calvin McDowell — tried to defend themselves and were sent to jail.
“And the white newspaper wrote the headline, ‘Negro desperadoes shot white men,'” Turnipseed said. “In order words, they lied.”
Following that the men were lynched by a white mob while in police custody.
With such violence occurring at an extreme rate, Wells penned an editorial urging blacks to leave Memphis, noting they were “outnumbered” and did not have guns.
Her voice was heard, Turnipseed said. Within two months, about 6,000 blacks had left the area. This began Wells’ campaign to investigate lynchings occurring around the country.
“(She found) two-thirds were hung, shot and burned to death for very little things,” Turnipseed said, adding the men were also not given right to a trial. Wells found that men were being lynched for minuscule offenses, like not paying bills or arguing with neighbors, or no offenses at all. One-third were killed for alleged rapes of white women, said Turnipseed.
“(The lynchings) were justified that way,” said Turnipseed, adding for most of the cases where rape was the reported crime, evidence showed the relationships to be consensual.
Wells’ findings caused outrage, said Turnipseed, and mobs destroyed the office of the newspaper from which she published the evidence.
She traveled overseas with her message, before eventually settling in Chicago, where she worked alongside the likes of Susan B. Anthony, Jane Addams and Frederick Douglass, and continued to fight against the lynchings of blacks. After retiring to care for her four children, she reentered the political landscape in 1898, when, in visiting President William McKinley she urged for a federal law against lynching. No anti-lynching legislation was ever passed by Congress, but he made an anti-lynching speech soon after their visit.
She was one of two black women to sign “the call” to form the NAACP in 1909, but later left the organization saying it lacked action-based initiatives.
“She was called the most radical of so called radicals,” Turnipseed said.
The list of Wells’ further accomplishments and actions as an activist is varied and long, including: As part of her work with the National Equal Rights League she called for President Woodrow Wilson to put an end to discriminatory hiring practices for government jobs; She created the first African-American kindergarten in Chicago; In 1930, she made an unsuccessful bid for the state senate in Illinois, leading the way for other future women candidates — and so much more. The Ida B. Wells (or Alpha Suffrage) clubs she created to support a constitutional amendment to allow women to vote, still exist today throughout the country.
Turnipseed held a discussion regarding Wells following the presentation, concluding that Wells fearlessly ventured out into the world as a crusader for justice despite the risks out of “love.”
“People like (her) are once in a lifetime,” she said.
Jackie Stennis, of Columbus, said she viewed Wells as fearless. She marveled at the fact that she was from Holly Springs, but was willing to go wherever it took to spread her information, even places like Mississippi where she faced potential violence, and that she was able to make so many important changes.
“I mean, how in the world?” she said, in awe.
The crowd seemed to enjoy a lively conversation regarding the importance of recognizing such figures that fought for freedom and delved the landscape of today’s racial tensions — concluding that there is just as much of a need for the fearlessness displayed by Wells today as there was then.
“All of the leaders like her that were forgotten should be made part of (school) curriculums,” said Ella McLeod, of Columbus, who attended with her husband Thomas. “She had unrestrained zeal, and she was willing to die for what she believed in, which gave her inner strength.”
Sam Luvisi is news editor and covers education for The Dispatch.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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Related Photos
Ella McLeod, of Columbus, speaks her mind about the courage of civil rights leader Ida B. Wells after hearing about her struggle in the 1880s at the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library Thursday. “It’s our responsibility to bring these important history lessons into our schools for children to know,” McLeod said. Photo by: Luisa Porter/Dispatch Staff
