Ida B. Wells tea towel

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (1862-1931) was born into slavery in Mississippi and freed after the Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War. After losing her parents to yellow fever when she was 16, she went to work to keep her family. She later moved to Memphis where she worked as a teacher and a journalist, reporting on racial segregation. Following her investigations into lynchings, her newpaper offices were destroyed and she moved to Chicago under continued threats. She was active in the campaign for votes for women. She was posthumously honored with a Pulitzer Prize special citation.