paula giddings talks about civil rights pioneer ida b. wells. she discusses her career in the late 1800s, the lynching of her friend, her exile from memphis, and her activism in brooklyn and chicago. she is the author of "ida, a sword among lions: ida b. wells and the campaign against lynching." the brooklyn historical society hosted this 75-minute event. [laughter] -- [applause] sylvia: good evening. my name is sylvia cookie lewis and i am a graduate of smith college. is anyone from smith here? [laughter] sylvia: i am a newbie on the board of trustees here.

marcia had recruited me. i am on the programs committee. what i saw that professor giddings said yes, i said we are going to get my smithies here. we are going to take over this place. i hope they are ready. i wanted to give you a special welcome to the historical society from the black alumni of smith college and the smith college club of new york city. this is a joint cosponsorship of the reception after the presentation. please join us for that. i just wanted to let you know -- they asked me to say a few words. i want you to know that i went to smith in the 1970's and we did not have a book about ida b. wells. but i'm so glad that professor giddings wrote that book and it

is the largest book i have ever read after graduating. it is a really thick book. i do not know if you have seen it. i was so glad. she is one of those sisters -- the theme of tonight is sisterhood. she is one of those sisters -- i am wearing red to associate with the deltas. in my mind i think i delta. am a she is one of those sisters who was the most famous black woman of her time. somehow, we do not know about her. i was really thrilled to see that we were able to present this program tonight. that is all i really wanted to say. this place is about history, stories about the lives that were erased from history, overlooked people. that is why i am thrilled about tonight and her presentation. we are a tag team.

i would like to call my sister . she has been on the board a very long time. we are like a tagteam. valerie? valerie: good evening, everyone. thank you so much, sylvia. you are so sweet and i am so glad that you are with us at the historical society. everybody knows me knows that i love the brooklyn historical society. i have been on this board for 32 years. [applause] my babies were small. they want to hacker. -- packer. i had sheila and sarah crane as my mentors.

they introduced me to the society at that time and i have been here ever since. today, i am so proud that we are doing this program on the heels of celebrating dr. martin luther king. the major drama in our civil rights movement. we bring you another model of a legend tonight, except she is a woman. [laughter] ida b. wells. i could not be more proud than to be part of the same sisterhood as our speaker, paula giddings. she is a delta sigma theta. would all the members of the delta sigma famous rorty -- th eta sorority stand? [applause] tonight, we celebrate you as

well because when one of us is celebrated, we are all celebrated. for those of you who do not know much about the delta sigma theta sorority, i want you to know a little bit of history because this is the historical society. delta sigma theta was established and is known as dst. it was incorporated in 1913 and we are a sisterhood of more than 250,000 educated women all over the world. there are more than 975 chapters located in the u.s., england, japan, germany, virgin islands, bermuda, bahamas and the republic of korea. prominent members include but

are not limited to the honorable shirley chisholm, aretha dorothy height, sicily tyson, ruby dee, lena horne, nikki giovanni. these are just a few of the prominent members of delta sigma theta sorority. paula j. giddings is our speaker. that is what you are here. she is the elizabeth a. woodson 1922 professor emeritus of americana studies at smith college and the author of "when and where i enter." [applause] not to go into all of her background because you have her

book and you know more about her than i do. i can say to you that i am most profited 2017, she was inducted into the american academy of arts and science. tonight ladies and gentlemen, , please help me welcome on behalf of the brooklyn historical society, our community partners, the delta sigma theta sorority sisterhood, let's welcome paula to brooklyn and the brooklyn historical society. [applause] welcome, my dear.

prof. giddings: i could feel it. thank you. thank you so much, valerie. for that wonderful introduction. thank you, marcia, for inviting me to this august place. it is really appreciated. and cookie lewis, great organizer that you are, i really appreciate you're doing this and reaching out. look at this group. thank you so much. so good to know that there are some smith black alums in the house. and some smith new york alums in the house. and deltas in the house. ak's in the house?

[laughter] welcome, one and all. [laughter] ida b. wells. i am going to talk about her, -- i talked to her to. [laughter] , not just in a is a black woman journalist who launched the nation's first antilynching campaign in 1892, but as a reformer whose modern and progressive ideas became the foundation of the modern civil rights and women's rights movements. for some reason, we never think of blacks, particularly in this period as progressive reformers and thinkers. but no people were more

progressive in the classical sense of the word. people were mobilizing to eliminate the problems caused by industrialization, urbanization and political corruption in this period. and people who had a vision of a future society when these reforms were realized. no one was more progressive than african-american. secondly, i want to talk about short for consequential stay in brooklyn. because i am in brooklyn. curiously, it cannot be overstated how important it is that wells came as an exile to from memphis to this city first. she had great support here, maybe more than anywhere else. sometimes we assume that someone as heroic as wells would have support everywhere, but she did

not. after she leaves brooklyn, frederick douglass invites her to speak in washington, d.c. the only people in the audience were frederick and his family. the support, which i will talk about in brooklyn, was so significant. this means, of course, i am going to emphasize and focus on these two things. it means i will be about more than half of her activist life. in chicago beginning in 1895. feel free to ask me in the and a section.q even though i am preaching to the choir now i will begin by , giving a very quick bullet biography,iew of her just in case there are those who do not spend as much time with her as i have.

i will do this very quickly and try not to be caught in the weeds, which i always do. let me go through quickly, bullet point overview in chronological order. 1862, ida b. wells is born in holly springs, mississippi to enslaved parents, who like many extraordinary african-americans make a good transition to freedom. her father, james, was a skilled carpenter who would have his own business and family home. her mother, elizabeth, was known as a famous cook. educated at russ college by the methodist inspired pre-movement -- friedmans society, wells attended with many other blacks in the region, including her mother, who also went to school

with her. she had a happy childhood until about 1878. a yellow fever epidemic raged across the mississippi valley. her parents, james and elizabeth, die within 24 hours of one another. leaving ida, then age 16, and three younger sisters and two younger brothers -- leaving them as orphans. soon after we see ida's first act of defiance when she refuses the wishes of family friends, who wanted to divide the children among them. instead she asked help to get a teaching job so that she could support the family herself. in this chaotic, lawless and victorian environment of ravaged holly springs this decision of hers makes are the target of

vicious rumors. about wanting to be on her own to solicit the favors of white men. the charge combined with the devastating death of her parents would have a effect on her psyche and her activism. you can ask me more about that. i will not go into that during this talk. 1880, she moved to memphis with an aunt, aunt fannie wells. in memphis, 44,000 people fled the on coming up yellow fever. -- on coming of yellow fever. 5000 out of the remaining 20,000 in memphis perished. it just wiped out memphis. ida becomes a teacher at the memphis school system and became part of the lyceum a publication , that she would edit called the evening star. in 1883, at the age of 21, she begins her activist career in earnest.

she refuses to give up her first class seat in the league's of the chesapeake and ohio railway. sues the cno, wins the suit in the circuit court. the judge in the case deemed ida a woman of "ladylike comportment and a schoolteacher who had the right to sit in a first-class car." just a little. i can't help myself. there is a transcript of this court case and it describes how ida comes to court. she is always dressed to the nines. hat, gloves, parasol. and she is sitting there very appropriately. the conductor, who tried to rip her out of the seat trying to physically extricate her. in doing so, she bit him.

[laughter] in the court case, he says to the judge, she looks like a lady now -- [laughter] but i bled freely. a local baptist newspaper asked her to write about her experience. this would be the beginning of her career as a journalist, a profession where she discovers as she writes. he writes theas se real me. 1889, she is known nationally as a printer of the press. one third interest of a memphis newspaper called the free speech. 1892, after a friend of hers and two others are viciously tortured and lynched, she would launch the nation kersey -- nation's first antilynching campaign and investigative reporting, which she would lynching. call the truth about it is said

to be occurring because black men were raping white women across the south. i will talk more about that. moreover in protest, she called , for blacks to leave memphis in lynching andhe about 20% of them did. she also lead the trolley car boycott that led the company to the edge of bankruptcy. in that same year, after provocative editorials, the newspaper office is destroyed her free-speech partner was run , out of memphis. she herself was threatened with lynching. she is exiled to brooklyn. it is here in brooklyn where she works for the new york age and publishes the first study on lynching and its pages. -- in its pages. in 1893, she protest the lack of

representation. and 1893, she takes her campaign to the british isles, where she gained support from reformers, newspaper editors and the duke of argyll and archbishop of canterbury among others. , she returned and trialed to new york city, took the campaign to california and would finally settle in chicago where she marries a true partner ferdinand , barnett and gives birth to four children between 1896 and 1904. later was born when she was 42 years of age. i was happy to be able to write about a good marriage. that was a good marriage. in chicago, wells-barnett established the first black kindergarten. i think only black women like lynching on monday and kindergarten on tuesday. establishes a settlement house. becomes an advocate for black

prisoners. she saved the lives of a number of men bound for execution. she establishes both black and interracial women civics organizations. forms the first black women's suffrage organization in chicago that is responsible for electing chicago's first black alderman. , and thended the naacp year before her death in 1931, she runs for a state senate seat as an independent. she had requested that at her funeral the song be sung, "i have done my work." very appropriate. if anybody -- you can listen to that. if you are not familiar with that, haley jackson does a version of it that would just

run chills down your spine. ok. the big turning point in her life occurs in march of 1892, when in memphis, thomas moss and calvin mcdowell and henry stewart were lynched. carrier who was president of a co-op called the people's grocery, where the other men also worked, was a close friend of wells. he met her and talk to her on his postal route, when he went past the newspaper office. they taught sunday school together. his wife was a good friend of hers too, and was pregnant at the time. wells was the godmother of his baby girl, maureen. what led up to the murders was a series of events provoked by a white proprietor and competitor

who was business to the black grocery. the bottom line is the provocations resulted in a racial scuffle near the grocery and there were a lot of lack of -- black arrests, shootings and black manse by the three deputy sheriffs have come to destroy the grocery. the men were imprisoned. on march 9, 1892, 75 masked men riding on horseback, including the criminal drudge of shelby county, rode to the county jail, searched for these three men, took them by train to a vacant lot and tortured and lynched them. we know the gruesome details of this lynching because white newspapers were told about it in advance. they dispatched reporters to write about it. mcdowell's fingers were shot off in five inch and four holes shot

into his face and neck large enough to insert a fist. his right eye was shot through. his brains oozed out of the opening. stuart and moss were also shot through the face and neck in the same manner. a replication of the injuries suffered by the three white deputy sheriffs. talk about a knife or a night. eye. eye for an at first, wells was so devastated after hearing this news, and actually surprised that she could not write anything. she described a black community in shock. the thing to remember here is that it is not until 1886 that more blacks were lynched than whites. ation of that

practice that began in the revolutionary years -- that is how old lynching was in the u.s. -- had not sunk in. this was not supposed to happen in a sophisticated city like memphis, where blacks were succeeding according to the progressive ideas of the time. and certainly was not supposed to happen to a man like moss. progressive ideas in this period had a religious significance. it was believed that all the innovative and laborsaving technology electricity, steam , engine and the press were part of god's design to propel society forward towards a perfect destiny of uplifting improvement. a destiny without corruption, ignorance, want or sin. in this formulation the pursuit of wealth was not only acceptable, but a religious calling. poverty was equated with failure and sin.

us the undeserving poor an hour culture. blacks were certainly doing their part. just 12 years before, 92% of black eligible voters voted in tennessee. 92%. they elected a republican governor and legislators, including several black legislators who propose civil rights legislation. black students had higher attendance rates in the public schools than whites. those schools were racially separate, but teachers black and white, male and female were paid on the same salary scale. progressive city. education was deemed important, including education for women.

particularly with black students, like a whole base -- a whole race trying to go to school. black literacy had risen dramatically in these years. so much so that the number of blacks who could read provided a sufficient market for black newspapers. like the free speech. in this period, 200 black weeklies were published throughout the country. 200 of them. people could make a career out of journalism. this included women. women were very involved, as in typesetting as well as , writing women's columns. part of this progressive idea in the black community was also the uplift of women. we congratulate the women for the progress and advancement of the colored people was the

resolution of the colored press association anything 84. -- in 1884. it is with gratitude to god that we renew our pledge as journalists to support and sustain every institution of learning and industry that tends to enlightens and benefits our social, religious and material interest. progressive. as noted, blacks had also struck a blow with ida's victory with the railway. the chesapeake and ohio. the railways were considered as ives "agent and symbol of america's republic civilization." in that case, she had been called a lady, which was essential to gaining protections and benefits of the law. this was particularly pointed that poignant -- particularly poignant because black women suffered so many perceptions

during -- because of the history of slavery. the history of sexual fodder during slavery. this is why, when you look at history in this period, there are a number of cases of black women on the railways, trying -- in the first class and issues of first-class ladies car. because when you have a ladies car and you have laws like memphis does of separate but equal equality depended on equal , treatment of white women and black women. black women were suing for this constantly. so african-americans, in just one generation since slavery were giving their part in this religion of progress, no one more so than thomas moss.

he was a symbol of a new progressive ideology. he had been saving money, even has a young teenager. he had an account at the friedman's bank. he was not particularly political. he was entrepreneurial. his job as a postal carrier passing a federal exam, which he had done. the people's grocery was co-owned by black citizens, ranging from laborers to school principals. this was also symbolic of the business acumen of african-americans in memphis. this is not to say that there were not struggles. democrats were beginning to take and in the late 1880's disenfranchisement began in the 1890's. 1880's. -- in the late 1880's. she lost the court case of

-- on appeal, but for a people who had been in slavery, or their parents had been enslaved and who were now teachers and store owners and political officials, they were just that. struggles that would inevitably be overcome. after all, as ida's minister noted in this period, blacks are in a christian civilization with republican form of government. such a nation can only build on the idea of liberty, intelligence, industry and equal chance in the struggle for manhood. inevitable. inevitable. get rid of ignorance, accumulate wealth, inevitable first-class citizenship.

but the moss murder was, as ida wrote in her autobiography, the community's first lesson in white supremacy. while searching for the right words for her editorial, she remembered something said in one of the papers. moss's last words, as he was facing death was tell my people to go west. there is no justice for them here. west was the oklahoma territories that were opening up in this period. to wells' own astonishment, after reiterating his words and an editorial, blacks start leaving immediately. if you read the newspaper descriptions, thousands would line up at the docks with their

mules and everything they owned and their wagons, ready to go all the way to oklahoma. within the year, 20% of the black population leaves memphis, which is a large percentage of its workforce. and the city suffers mightily. people were without laborers. households were without maids. as ida notes, they were great consumers in terms of restaurants and stores. they also tended to buy on layaway. and now they were gone. soon after, ida leads a trolley car boycott in memphis. the trolley cars were owned by a northern firm. they had just recently been electrified. part of the technology of the period. her newspaper office to ask her

-- one day, representatives came to her newspaper office to ask her to persuade black riders to ride them again. they thought maybe blacks were afraid of electricity. to this wells asked them, were people riding the trolley cars before the moss murder? well, guess. -- yes. stating the obvious, ida said that it was a protest, and until his killers were brought to justice, the cars were going to stay empty. ida went from church to church encouraging blacks to stay off the trolleys. and they did. white leaders began to feel the pinch, not only in terms of economics, but this was also a period when it was important for the south in general and memphis in particular to have an image of stability, tranquility, and adhering to the progressive

mantra. wells also understood this. her campaign was shaped in part to show what the south really was. in response, memphis's leaders started to relent. they did not deliver the murderers, but there were apologies in newspapers. condemnations of lynching in general, and moss in particular and compensation given to moss's , widow, betty. she also understood the political power. she understood this before anyone else really does. the political power, newly available, in this modern industrial age. to northern capitals she wrote and african-american labor, the south goes its rehabilitation. if labor is withdrawn, capital will not remain.

the african-american is the backbone of the south, and judicial exercise of this power in lynching localities can many times affect a bloodless revolution. in a face of a time when people were afraid of mobs, wells starts going for an inter-class, grassroots rebellion. the days when elites could successfully negotiate wealth was coming to an end. after the lynching, she became not just a writer of brilliant editorials but investigative journalism. she pulls out statistics to prove her point. in 1892, lynching had reached an annual peak of 241. a conservative estimate is that 728 lynchings took place between

1882 and 1891. by after this period, the number 1927, would reach about 5000. in her investigations wells find that there are consensual liasons between black men and white women. they were often called rape when discovered. furthermore, she finds it she writes in statistics, which is a new innovation at a time at well, use of statistics. blacks were being lynched for talking back to white people. for petty crimes. or, like moss, because they competed successfully with whites. this has tremendous implications

for wells. implications that she is one of the first to understand. first, there is a new mantra of progress that needs to be told. black achievement alone was not a gateway to first-class citizenship. but a threat to the new southern order and even one's life. her editorials forced blacks to not judge the racial situation by only their successes. but also by the fact that at the same time, violence, disenfranchisement, and mass incarceration were increasing. this has helped me understand the contemporary situation, too. understood before many of her peers that there had been a turn against blacks because

southern whites had failed the moral and spiritual quest of progress. southern culture, with all of its violence, was corrupt. it could not right itself, could not purify its moneymaking ways. in 1887, for example, there was a referendum lobbied hard by a black and white prohibition is -- prohibitionists to keep the city of memphis dry. it lost. memphis was at the center of the south's whiskey trade. it would against -- the referendum went against too many monetary interest to succeed. nevertheless, the defeat was blamed on black voters. they said they voted against prohibition. which later analysis show this to be completely untrue. still, soon after that vote, disenfranchisement efforts began in earnest in memphis. now as the white papers begin to point out across the country,

blacks were an obstacle to god's plan of progress. the idea became a foundation of the emerging social sciences at the time. now giving racism an imprimataur scientifice observation. this was especially true in ivy league schools, which were largely financed by contemporaneous and former slave owners. number --figure and a then daniel britain, a university of pennsylvania professor and one-time president of the international congress of anthropology and the american association for the advancement of science in 1897 that, "blacks had regressed to being midway between the orangutan and the european whites." the correlation to this belief

was that blacks were impelled to rape white women and raise his race to a higher level. wells's investigations that revealed the seductive sexuality of white women and the attractiveness and civility of their black lovers gave life to the social science. she is aware of what she is up against, which is why she uses statistics and information from white sources as well as her own. her writings include violence towards women and girls. like the rape of an black eight-year-old maggie reese by a white man who became a detective in memphis. and a lynching of a 15-year-old mildred brown of purely circumstantial evidence for poisoning a white baby for the family she worked for.

these were the real female victims, thus begging the question, who were the real rapists and criminals? thus, in a victorian world, where class was conflated with character and character destiny, wells not only accuses white men and women with all kinds of skulduggery, but said that all black women deserve protection. and that there was an important role of leadership among the laboring classes. finally, noting that the more the afro-american cringes and bags, the more he is insulted and outraged and lynched, wells believed that "the lessons this teaches in which every afro-american should ponder well is that a winchester rifle should have a place of honor in

every black home." and you wonder why she was run out of memphis. [laughter] in may of 1892, wells wrote her famous editorial. eight negros were lynched since the last issue , three for killing a white man whiteve about raping women. the same program of hanging and shooting bullets into the lifeless bodies was carried out to the letter. if southern white men are not careful, they will overreach themselves and public sentiment will have a reaction. a conclusion will then be reached which will be very damaging to the moral reputation of their women. the editorial was published when wells had already left on a long

planned trip to philadelphia and an ame conference there. from there she went to new york. she is met by the great editor thomas fortune, a transplanted brooklynite. she says, well it has been a , long time getting to new york. but now that you are here, i am afraid that you will have to stay. wells says, what are you talking about? she did not understand why the -- why he said that. then she learns that all hell has broken out in memphis after that editorial. her newspaper had been destroyed. her business partner had been threatened with castration and forced to leave the city. a former co-owner of the paper was pistol whipped and forced to sign a letter denouncing the editorial as a slander against white women. wells was threatened with lynching.

there were folks posted at the railway station to intercept her. she was told a local black militia group would protect her if she returned. but ida concluded that doing so would mean more bloodshed, more widows. she was now in exile. she would not set foot in her native south for the next 30 years. having destroyed my paper, having a price but on my life, and been made an exile from home for hinting at the truth, she thought she owed it to herself and to my race to tell the whole truth now that i was where i could do so freely. she would do so on the front page editorial published on june 25 in the new york age entitled "the truth about lynching."

the first study of the practice that includes all the elements. it marked the new thinking i was talking about in the new age of protest. 1000 copies of the addition were sold in memphis alone. back in memphis, so-called representatives of colored folks, many of whom she personally knew and some of them she had dated, we will let go -- we won't go there right now were condemning her. , many blacks, even moderates like her minister, were publicly critical of wells. they were forced to leave the city just because of her association with her. the same benjamin imes who was so hope. had a nervous breakdown. she was now planted in brooklyn. now i am going to talk a little

bit about some descriptive elements about brooklyn. i loved researching brooklyn and understanding the context of where she came to. it was a new experience for a southerner to be in brooklyn. while memphis had a population of 34,000, brooklyn had 795,000. nevertheless, brooklyn had a black population of only 10,000. out of 795,000. and memphis had a black population of 15,000. although the majority of blacks held low wage positions in both the north and the south, a difference ida observed was that the south restricted blacks in many personal rights, they were not excluded from working and -- and the many trades and vocations. where is by contrast, northern

blacks may have had more individual rights, but regardless who did -- but were largely excluded from such work by labor unions and employers. one of the biggest issues in brooklyn at the time was that of , surprise surprise housing. , tell me about it. there were great fears on the part of whites that having blacks move into the neighborhoods, that the property values would decline. just before ida arrived, a new york times reporter investigated this issue and was startled to find that african-americans who lived in brownstones employed white servants and rode in

carriages driven by a liveried coachman. they took this accumulation of wealth stuff seriously. one can only imagine ida's emotional state while in the city. again it is so important how , this city embraced her. all, thomas fortune got her a place to live near he street. gold notice the vinegar hill section of town. he lived there, and his lawyer lived there and co-publisher lived in that area. fortune would be a very good friend to her. of course his newspaper, the new york age, was the most important black newspaper in the country. and the most widely read. he was the most brilliant editor. he had a difficult time later in his life. he becomes an alcoholic and had

financial problems with the paper. but he is a man who was self-taught. still gets into howard law school. changes and becomes a journalist. and, publishes the great new york age. ida would also participate in lyceums in memphis. but the lyceums in brooklyn where something. there was the brooklyn literary union. these were all black. the concorde literary circle. the progressive union. and the star lyceum among others. educated african-americans like ida were familiar with shakespeare, dickens, alcott and the bronte sisters. as a teacher in memphis, she was a member of the lyceum in that city.

in this period, this is not literature for literature site. african-americans were promoting literature that was deemed as valuable for its power to redefine and enlighten the race. "the voice of the south." this is the time of frederick douglass. all of these forms were so well attended that the brooklyn daily eagle, a white newspaper, noted in 1892 that "no other group of people were fonder of literary pursuits than african-americans." ida herself was invited to speak on afro-american literature. to open the season on the concorde literary circle. in the concorde baptist church. and true the largest audience that ever attended a literary meeting in that city. washington bee said, ida

completely captivated the larger cultivated audience. she also in this period goes into a debate with a really wonderful figure, richard lyons. in brooklyn. she was born of a prosperous free family in new york city. her father's business was ruined in the draft riots of 1863. you look at history, ours is not a history of never having. it is things being taken away. hundreds of black business and institutions were destroyed in that riot, at least one man was launched on clarkson street and torched while hanging from a tree.

lyons' family moved to providence, rhode island where they will not admit her into the only high school, which is a white high school. so she sues and gets admission into the school. she returns to new york, and she has been tapped to be the first assistant principal of a formerly all-white school. which was consolidated with ps-68 the education board's decision to consolidate rather than separate students was largely due to the effort of fortune's lawyer, who is a member of the brooklyn board and who had gotten support of the brooklyn literary union. in this debate, richa bests ida. this is typical ida, reflecting

a little bit on her personality, she goes to lyons and says teach me to debate. lyons tutors her. when ida leaves brooklyn, she will be on the speaking tour in england. this bodes well for her. i will tell you quickly about some other people she meets. this great moment in support of her. she meets people like new york's first black public school principal, sarah garnet, and widow of the abolitionist henry halleck garnet. she meets a graduate of new york medical college for women. the first black woman to practice medicine in new york state. and the third black woman in the country to do so.

she meets victoria matthews, who has an unbelievable story. matthews, a year older than ida , had more in common with her that some of the others. matthews was also a journalist who rose in the profession. her mother had been a slave in virginia. the master had treated everyone so badly that the mother leaves her children there. but she comes back and sues to get them back. and she regains possession of them. these are some kind of people. it is matthews' suggestion that to organize the testimonial for ida, the idea was not only to show support for wells and raise money to publish her editorial

as a pamphlet, but also to use the occasion to bring women activists together from philadelphia, boston, new york, and brooklyn. brooklyn and new york were to -- were two separate entities at this time. very much on the mind of the two organizers was the issue of the less than cordial relations between black women in new york and those in brooklyn. wells offered no further insight into this, but blacks in the two cities had a long-standing rivalry. the tension between the two groups first appeared after those riots of 1863, when more affluent families began abandoning new york city for brooklyn. the trend continued in the 1890's. as soon as black new yorkers "amassed a considerable fortune, they moved across the east river into brooklyn," as the newspaper noted.

lyons and matthews calculated rightly that a tribute to wells would generate enough mutual interest for the women to overcome the differences. in fact, the idea was met with so much enthusiasm that soon there was no house large enough all those who came. finally, a committee of 250 women were appointed from both places to organize a testimonial. october of 1892. picture this. you are in a place called lyric hall. the stage was emblazoned with gas jets on thepelled 'iola' platform. her pen name was sewn into the silk badges worn by the ushers. women came. she called it a brilliant gathering of women who attended,

including philadelphia journalists, a very important figure in boston, and others. ida wells was overwhelmed by the scene. she for the first time, she , tears up when she recounts what had brought her there. but again she was so supportive. victoria matthews goes across the stage and gives her a handkerchief for her tears. ida was so mad at herself for crying. others told her it really moved the audience. the event raised more than $400 beyond expenses. that was sufficient enough to publish the pamphlet, which was called "southern horrors."

ida dedicated it to the women of new york and brooklyn. whose race, love and unselfish probable -- made possible publication. the importance of the support of brooklyn activists, men and especially women, cannot be overstated to ida's cause. they gave her campaign and her revolutionary ideas legitimacy. and became the basis for the first black national women's organization in history. the national association of colored women, founded four years later. and other protest organizations like the niagara league and the naacp. wells council blacks that wealth and social advancement were not agents of change in themselves she was , laying the groundwork for

protest movements in the post-victorian protest -- where progress was not inevitable without political protest and action. and where language, not natural law, to find -- defined the meaning of grace. somebody must show that the african-american race is more sinned against than sinning. she had found the vehicle of her destiny. it seems to have fallen on me to do so. thank you very much. [applause]

>> we will open the floor up for questions. just put your hands up and i will see if i can get to you. >> hi. so, this is absolutely fascinating. of the many questions that come to mind, how was she able to navigate all of this as a single woman? what i know about the period, it seemed like you had to have a man, be in a household in order to do anything legally. in order to be thought of as a proper woman. how did she do this being single? prof. giddings: she did even more. she started selling subscriptions all through the mississippi valley. she went alone, as a woman.

she did have held in terms of -- when she sold subscriptions, her father had been a master mason. the black fraternal order in holly springs. the masons in mississippi valley, all throughout mississippi valley helped ida with the newspapers, and protected her. but this was a problem for her. because not only was she single, but she was an orphan. she had no protectors. this had an impact on her -- ida, if you read the book, ida had a very interesting dating history. [laughter] prof. giddings: she kept a diary so we know some of this information. she just put in an initial but i found out who they were. [laughter]

prof. giddings: what she demanded, always, i actually started feeling sorry for the young men. [laughter] prof. giddings: she always demanded that they had the strength enough to protect her. that they be men. manly to protect her. she felt sometime, she regressed sometimes into a childlike -- you know? this was part of her -- and this also translates into some of her politics. she says, when will you be men and stand up? so she had trouble. that rumor in holly springs follows her for a lot of her life. she has to fight it. we will end with this, one of the wonderful things about ferdinand barnett, she is also called all sorts of things by

the white press. ida was thinking about slander because they called her a slut. the new york times called her a nasty minded mulatress. that is my favorite. [laughter] she was thinking about going to court. she asked a white judge about slander, etc. he says, i am kind of busy right now. this was the judge doing plessy ferguson. [laughter] but he says, i have a lawyer you should talk to. that is how she meets ferdinand barnett, her husband, who defends her, despite all of those name-calling, he defends her and stands by her. and that is, i'm sure, why she married him. >> hi. thank you.

this is brilliant, you are the ultimate teacher on ultimate subject. so i feel honored to be in the room. >> thank you. >> khan the subject of ida, i'm so happy that funding was finally raised for a monument for her honor to be erected in chicago. reading in the book a little bit about how ida was painted as crotchety. a little bit. do you think that was because people like her contemporaries, folk, didn'tther give her things? do you think she got a bad rap based on not giving her dues? prof. giddings: both things are true. she was given a bad rap because, for one thing, she was very critical. she was publicly critical of people. when she felt like they were not living up to what they needed to for the race. so people were not happy with that.

again, she transgresses. she transgresses gender roles, ideas around class, all that, so people are upset about that. but, she is also, because of her situation of being orphaned, if you look at the psychological models of people who are orphaned at critical ages, she fits the psychological model of being, feeling great internal anger over that that sometimes just spurts out. she had a hard time making friends. but, what is interesting about her is that -- and you see all of this in the diary. she is working so hard.

she calls her anger her "befitting sin." she works so hard to transform that energy into something else. and she succeeds to a good degree. part of that, she is a driven reformer. part of that drive is the energy that she is turning in a constructive way. but she does not do it completely. she still has her moments. but, she is so self reflective and self-aware. and she is trying so hard, talking about reforming society, but she's also very consciously trying to reform herself. >> here is my question. i am from memphis, tennessee. prof. giddings: ok. >> born, raised. never recalled hearing about ida in high school, early 1960's.

my question is, given the hell and may haveere, even left there, is there a monument in her honor now in memphis? because as an adult, i would like to go back and take a look. and now that i know about the civil rights museum that has been created and is growing every single day, did that museum embrace her as a civil rights leader mover -- mover? prof. giddings: i am pretty sure. i do not remember specifically about the museum, but i think she is at least mentioned. but whether she has given her dues is another question. there is a marker dedicated to ida in memphis on beale street. but there needs to be more. there is lots of talk, there is

called bedford forrest park. he was a horrible confederate soldier who just mowed down blacks. and so they said -- there is a movement to rename that. >> you are getting ready to start something. [laughter] look at what some of us could do in memphis. prof. giddings: are you going to help me? >> yes! absolutely. prof. giddings: ok. when i spoke in memphis the last time, there was a class of six-year-olds from the ida wells academy. they had the banner, ida wells. academy. it,they -- i didn't realize they were kind of in the back, i would have helped them because they were holding it for so long as i was -- [laughter] with their little hands.

but that's a good sign. i think. [laughter] >> hi, sorry. [laughter] excellent research. i think it is absolutely fantastic to know about her and her life. we know about her -- prof. giddings: wait a minute, i cannot see you. >> over here. [laughter] as i drop my phone. prof. giddings: ok, thanks. >> i think, one of the things i find that is really interesting when talking about historical figures, we don't talk a lot about their lives. particularly when we are talking about african-american women, we never talk about the loves of their lives. i am thinking in terms of, just a lot of great prolific african-american women as if no one loved them. so i really, really appreciate , because we cannot go on in our

lives, cannot be that fantastic and fabulous without somebody cheering us on. there has got to be somebody. there has gotta be somebody. i really, really appreciate that coming to the forefront and letting them see the whole human being of the person. not necessarily like, she did that, here is her mansion, and that's it. it's not. she is a full human. prof. giddings: i try to be very conscious of that. >> i appreciate that. prof. giddings: for all of those that she encountered as well. you are right, it is very important. >> i want to say, it is an honor to be in this room and hear you speak about her. i also want to thank you, because i cited you so many times in my grad work. [applause] i graduated. prof. giddings: thank you. >> i want to thank you.

i have always wanted to ask you this. i know that she marched in the andragist march in 1913, she chose to not march in the back. i always wondered what kind of relationship she had after that, with the women, with black and white women. and at that particular time, mary frances berry wrote a book about the reparations movement. another black woman from the south as well, who was trying to organize and actually went to jail for trying to organize ex-slaves to get reparations from the country. they did things to her, similar to what they did to marcus garvey. i wonder what her relationship with her was like. she was kind of cantankerous as well. if you could speed a little bit about her relationship with mary church terrell. those contemporaries. theow she helped found

naacp, but then she was ousted as well. prof. giddings: ok. [laughter] prof. giddings: umm. [laughter] prof. giddings: let me start with this first question. that is a wonderful scene, i'm tempted but i will not read the forceshe scene where ida herself when they say that black women cannot in the front of the march suffrage parade. she just sort of hides until her contingent of illinois women starts down, and then pops up and goes right into the middle of it. and, but she has a decent relationship with the suffragists, both black and white. she is very important in chicago politics.

she is really -- because she mobilized women's vote in chicago. that's how she got that alderman elected, even though he never really appreciated it. she mobilized white women as well. and she worked with white suffragists as well. they lobbied together. so, she of course starts the suffrage club, which is the first black women's organization. which helps everyone. so she maintains a pretty good relationship with them. she was very important. they don't have much of a choice. she is also asked to -- she and her husband were republicans before she becomes an independent. and she goes around the state for republican candidates, white and black. so she is an important figure there. what was the second? i am not sure about her relationship.

they had similar, i know that ida wells also worked with marcus garvey. ida wells also talked about livedtions, because she in a time, in 1891 when 13 italians were lynched and families got reparations. the italian government got reparations from the u.s., as a result of that. so she said, why not african-americans? she was involved in that as well. mary church terrell had a hard time with her. she is from memphis. at a mutualt, there admiration society when they first meet. she liked terrell and what she

stood for. she was one of those people who was not worried about that lady like stuff. as some of you know, she goes to oberlin, takes a gentleman's course. insists on taking what is called a gentleman's course, which includes latin and greek and know the if you history of, even in black communities in the south this is not so extraordinary. terrell had a teacher who taught wells also knew, who taught latin and greek in the black public schools in memphis. but, later on, they became competitors around the national association of colored women. where terrell becomes the first president.

and i hate to take it out of context because it is a long story. but she feels that terrell tries to take too much power, and undermines the chicago people for the washington people. and terrell is a little more conservative. terrell sort of stays on the other side of the idea of progress. you know? and so ida has conflict with people with that conservative point of view. >> i think we have time for one more question. >> [no audio] she had a kidney -- issues with her kidneys. she was the type of person that, when things happened to her, things would happen in her body.

when she lost her settlement house, a couple of days later she goes into the hospital for a while and breaks down. so, she has kidney failure in the end. another question? >> did she work with frederick douglass, who would have been 44 years older than she was? prof. giddings: she and frederick douglass had almost a father/daughter relationship. he recognizes her. in fact, after that great testimonial in brooklyn, he hears of it and of her, and write a letter to her saying how courageous she was and how much he admired her. and she asked if she could

republish the letter in the pamphlet. he says yes. he is big. he is the leading race man of this period. even though he is aging in this period. he will die in 1895. but he lends her money to go to england. he set her up with -- of course, as some of you know, scottish and english activists actually bought douglass' freedom. he gets her in touch with the similar people that are still around in new reform movements. but they will have a problem towards the end. because ida wants him, while she is in england, to tell everyone that she represents the race.

and he has difficulty with that. he represents the race. [laughter] prof. giddings: so he says everything else. she is courageous, she is telling the truth, blah blah, but he will not say, she represents the race. that is partly some gender stuff going on, too. but she loves him anyway. she is disappointed, but he has done things for her as well. and she is very mournful when he dies. and by the way, when he dies, it is really wells who should have been the new race. she should have taken the mantle of the race leader. know, booker t.

washington and w.e.b. dubois will duke it out for that. that is a whole nother story. [laughter] thank you. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. join the conversation, like us on facebook. >> c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies. today, we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public policy events