Browse Items (26 total)

The founding of the National Association of Colored Women in 1896 gathered two generations of prominent African-American women in the nation's capital: Josephine Ruffin and Mary Church Terrell; Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, now in her 70s; and…

The belief that “women” would vote as a block about alcohol animated support and opposition re: suffrage. (It wasn’t ever really true.) The liquor industry lobbied against women’s votes at many junctures, though historians debate how much…

When Ida B Wells arrived in Brooklyn, it was still its own city. (The 5 boros consolidated in 1898.) How imposing the massive metropolis must have felt to Ida, forced to flee Memphis in 1892 after publishing “The Truth About Lynching.” Ida’s…

I am particularly fond of Josephine St Pierre Ruffin because she was an avid defender of Ida B Wells. Josephine moved among society women both white and Black and wasn’t afraid to disagree with them, especially in defense of unpopular or…

In 1893, inspired by Ida B Wells' call to do something to fight lynching, Josephine St Pierre Ruffin founded the Woman's Era Club in Boston. Two years later she invited dozens of other Black women's clubs that had sprung up around the country to…

My first surprise of the exhibit #500yearsofwomenswork @grolierclub today was that it was packed. About 100 people came to hear the #lisaungerbaskincollection described by Lisa herself. So many gems: - The pamphlet Ida B Wells wrote with Frederick…

If your New Year's resolution is to read more books, #CiteBlackWomen more, and/or meet new people... Join me in reading Paula Giddings' biography of Ida B. Wells and discussing it with companionable strangers. Details below. Time flexible. Happy…

A generation before the great #IdaBWells, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper spoke for Black women in a fierce debate that included Frederick Douglass, ElizCadyStanton & Susan B Anthony. #CiteBlackWomen #Kwanzaa It’s the 2nd Day of #Kwanzaa! Today…

Thomas Moss’s murder changed #IdaBWells’ life. Moss was a close friend & fellow business leader, and his death demonstrated that Black self-defense in Memphis was futile. Ida👇with Betty Moss and her children Maurine & Thomas Moss, Jr.,…

Within weeks of the murders, so much of Black Memphis had left town that the streetcar ridership collapsed. Men from the City Railway Co came to Ida B Wells' office, seeking to understand why Black riders had disappeared. Quotes from IBW's book…