Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Greaves, William.

Description

1. 2 film reels (55 min.) : sd., col.; 16 mm.

Summary

1. This film documents the life and times of Ida B. Wells, an almost forgotten civil rights pioneer, journalist, activist, and anti-lynching crusader whose stature was equal to such leaders as Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. Born the child of slaves in 1862 in Hollings, Mississippi, Ida was imbued with a love of learning by her parents; Ida and her mother attended school together in the era of Reconstruction. During a yellow fever epidemic, 16-year-old Ida was orphaned and given the responsibility of caring for her three siblings. Becoming a schoolteacher, Ida later moved to Memphis where the Ku Klux Klan had begun its campaign of terror and where the crucible of segregation was being enforced. Ida experienced this firsthand when she refused to be herded into the "blacks only" car of a train and was expelled from the conveyance. Ida sued the railroad and won, only to have the favorable decision overturned. Radicalized by the injustice which permeated society, Ida vented her outrage through the pen, becoming a journalist and eventually co-owner of the newspaper, Free Speech. In 1892, three black store owners, friends of Ida's, were lynched by a mob, impelling Wells to embark on an anti-lynching crusade. Moving East, Wells continued her fight in the pages of The New York Age, the city's leading black paper and across the ocean to England where she helped launch The London Anti-Lynching Committee. Eventually settling in Chicago, Wells became a member of the suffragette movement and married lawyer Ferdinand L. Barnett. She went on to become one of the founders of the NAACP and the Negro Fellowship League. In 1919, Wells returned to the South to support black farmers during the Arkansas Race Riots. In her closing years, Wells wrote her autobiography, Crusade for justice, excerpts of which are read by Toni Morrison. Greaves' portrait is complemented by archival photographs, rare lithographs, and interviews with historians and scholars, including Ida Wells' grandson Troy Duster.

Series statement

1. The American experience 8.1deorecording].

Subject

1. Wells-Barnett, Ida B., 1862-1931
2. African Americans > Civil rights
3. Civil rights > United States
4. African American women > Biography
5. Women > Biography

Credits (note)

1. Producer, director, writer, William Greaves; editor, Gary Winter; narrator, Al Freeman, Jr.

Title

1. Ida B. Wells: a passion for justice [motion picture] / William Greaves Productions for The American Experience, WGBH Educational Foundation and WNET/Thirteen ; produced by William Greaves and Louise Archambault.

Imprint

1. New York : William Greaves Productions, 1989.

Series

1. The American experience 8.1deorecording].

Credits

1. Producer, director, writer, William Greaves; editor, Gary Winter; narrator, Al Freeman, Jr.

Performer

1. Participants: Toni Morrison, Troy Duster, John Demott, David Tucker, Rosalyn Terborg-Penn.

Connect to:

1. Request Access to Reserve Film and Video Collection Special Collections material

Added author

1. Greaves, William.

Branch call number

1. M16 4265 I