Ida B. Wells Commemorated With New Monument Unveiled In Chicago

Photo Courtesy of ABC Chicago

On Wednesday, it was revealed that a monument commemorating the life and legacy of journalist/ activist Ida B Wells now stands in the South Side Chicago neighborhood she called home.

According to the Chicago Tribune, after several years of fundraising, the Ida B. Wells Commemorative Arts Committee secured the necessary funding for the monument in July of 2018.

Community members seemed to feel that the small commemorative site dedicated to Wells at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, wasn’t doing her enough justice.

The Ida B. Wells National Monument was created by the iconic sculptor Robert Hunt, The Light of Truth Ida. B. Wells National Monument, which gets its name from one of Wells’ most famous quotes.

“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them,” Wells told a crowd during a speech in 1892.

The often-used phrase has become a motto for people fighting against the status quo.

Michelle Duster, Wells’ great-granddaughter, told WTTW News about commissioning an abstract work instead of a statute.

“We wanted it to be a monument vs. a statue because Ida’s life and her work was so multi-dimensional, so multi-layered that we felt trying to capture one pose would not capture all of who she was,” Duster told the outlet.

According to NewsOne, the Mississippi native, Wells-Barnett, was born into slavery in 1862.

However, she later became a newspaper editor and vocal advocate, and through her writing and lectures, Wells-Barnett advocated for civil rights, including the right to vote.

She also co-founded the Alpha Suffrage and challenged the racism of her white peers within the suffrage movement.

In 1910, Wells-Barnet published “How Enfranchisement Stops Lynchings,” highlighting the importance of electoral participation.

“With no sacredness of the ballot, there can be no sacredness of human life itself,” wrote Wells-Barnett.

“Having successfully swept aside the constitutional safeguards to the ballot, it is the smallest of small matters for the South to sweep aside its own safeguards to human life.”