IV. How Ida Became Ida

My good name was all I had in the world, that I was bound to protect it from attack by those who felt they could do so with impunity.

—Ida B. Wells

Learning Strength and Defiance in Holly Springs

Ida Bell Wells was born on July 16, 1862, the first of Elizabeth and James Wells’s eventual eight children. It was a pivotal time in our country’s history as the Civil War raged across the young nation, including in her birthplace of Holly Springs, Mississippi. Since her parents were enslaved, by law Ida inherited the same status—she was considered a piece of property of “the master,” Spires Boling.

After Ida, Elizabeth and James “Jim” Wells had more children—Eugenia, James, George, Annie, Lily, and Stanley. Another brother, Eddie, died shortly after birth. As the oldest, Ida often had to watch over her brothers and sisters. Each Saturday night, she bathed all of them and prepared their clothes and shoes for Sunday church. Ida especially helped care for her sister Eugenia, who suffered from a childhood illness that eventually left her paralyzed. Her father worked as a handyman and carpenter for Mr. Boling, while her mother was the Bolings’ cook. Ida most likely would have also been an enslaved cook if the South had won the war.

Sketches of Ida’s hometown, Holly Springs, Missisisipi, circa 1863.

In April 1865, when the war ended and freedom finally came, James and Elizabeth Wells were overcome with joy. Not quite three years old, Ida had little concept of the magnitude of what her parents were celebrating. Like many formerly enslaved people, they celebrated their new freedom by marrying again, this time in a legal wedding ceremony. They relished the idea that their children would never be taken away from them and sold, as Elizabeth had experienced. They also looked forward to sending their children to school, which was an opportunity that had been illegal for enslaved people.

Shortly after the war ended, various agencies, including the Freedmen’s Bureau, were set up by the United States government in order to rebuild the South and help formerly enslaved people transition to freedom. In a ravaged land, people like Ida’s parents were enthusiastic about their newfound rights to vote, own property, start businesses, and attend school. One school was built right in Holly Springs. Shaw University (now Rust College) educated everyone who wanted to learn, from young children to the elderly. Since it had previously been illegal to learn how to read, Ida’s parents and most other Black adults were not literate. So when Ida went to school, her mother went with her until she learned to read the Bible.

James continued to work in the carpentry shop of his former enslaver as a paid employee. As free people, James and Elizabeth were able to come and go as they pleased, traveling on trains for picnics and holidays, planning and making their own decisions about their future. But some former slave owners were infuriated that people whom they considered to be beneath them could now compete with them. They resented the fact that they now had to pay people for labor instead of treating them like property.

In order to do what they could to assert their idea of a superior position in society, these disenchanted people formed hate groups. Shortly after the war, organizations like the Ku Klux Klan waged terror toward Black people. They roamed through the night, burning down property, killing, and stealing. It was a dangerous time for Black people, and most incidents of harm inflicted on them went unpunished. Riots swept across the region, and hit close to home in Memphis when Ida was four years old. Dozens of people were injured, murdered, or had property destroyed during a three-day rampage.

Meanwhile, in Holly Springs Ida enjoyed a happy childhood that consisted of school, reading, and chores. She was an avid reader who read through the Bible many times, in addition to reading novels that were popular at the time. She also spent time with her grandmother Peggy, her father’s mother, at her farm in Tippah County, Mississippi.

Still, Ida knew what she had been born into. Instead of reading to her children, Elizabeth told them true stories of her harrowing life under slavery. Elizabeth Wells, née Warrenton, was born in Virginia and had been beaten by her white enslavers. She described how she and two of her sisters were taken from their family in Virginia by slave traders and sold to a white family in Mississippi. She had experienced tremendous violence and cruelty. Elizabeth had lived in constant fear, unsure of what each day would bring. When would she get the next beating? Would she be sold again? Eventually, Elizabeth was sold to a builder named Mr. Boling, who lived in Holly Springs, Mississippi. There she worked in his house as a cook, where she met Ida’s father, James Wells. Except for one sister, she never saw her parents or siblings again. All she had as family were her sister, husband, and children.

James Wells was the son of a white plantation owner, Mr. Wells, and an enslaved woman, Peggy. The plantation was in Tippah County, Mississippi, not far from Holly Springs. Since Mr. Wells’s wife, Miss Polly, never had children, James had a special place in the Wells household. Mr. Wells wanted James to have carpentry skills to use on the plantation. So, unlike most enslaved people—who worked in the fields—James was given a chance to learn a trade. When James was eighteen, Mr. Wells arranged for him to apprentice with Mr. Boling in Holly Springs.

In 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution granted African American men the right to vote. James immediately joined other formerly enslaved men and voted. For Ida’s father, making his own decisions about the future meant not only voting but also becoming involved in politics. He was especially interested in knowing about the activities of the state’s lawmakers. Unfortunately, a dispute with Mr. Boling, who wanted James to vote for the slavery-supporting Democrat candidate rather than for an abolitionist Republican, resulted in James being locked out of his carpentry shop.

Far more skilled than many white people in the area, James bought a set of tools, rented a house, and started a new life for his family. His willingness to suffer consequences for doing what was right likely made an impression on young Ida. As a child, Ida learned about the slow progress Black people were making toward equal rights. Proud that Ida could read, her father encouraged her to read the newspaper to him and his friends. Little did she know that this practice in speaking would become part of her life’s work. Ida also listened to the group discuss the political events of the day. Some of the news gave them hope: In some areas, Black voters outnumbered white voters. Some Black men, including friends of Ida’s father, were elected to public office.

Whenever Jim went to his political meetings at night, Elizabeth paced the floor waiting for him to return home safely. There was always worry about what the Ku Klux Klan could do. Even though Ida had only a vague idea of who they were, she knew that members of this secret society terrorized Black people and the whites who supported them. Ida’s mother had good reason to be worried at night when her husband was gone. When the sun set, the KKK rode throughout the countryside. They set houses on fire. They dragged people from their homes. They whipped and murdered people with impunity. No one was safe. Despite the very real threat of violence, her father continued with his political activity. Growing up in a time when close to ninety percent of formerly enslaved people were illiterate, Ida also understood the power that came from the ability to read, write, and speak clearly. And through their example, Ida’s parents taught her to be courageous, to believe that she had a voice, and that she should be politically and socially engaged, even if it was dangerous.

The First Vote (1867), depicting the state of Virginia’s first election in which African American men were permitted to vote.

An Abrupt End to Childhood

Ida turned sixteen on July 16, 1878. She was enjoying the summer on her grandmother Peggy’s farm, which was far enough from home that news traveled slowly. She had heard that yellow fever, the deadly disease carried by mosquitos, had swept through Memphis, as well as Granada, Mississippi. But she wasn’t worried about anything happening in Holly Springs. Little did she know that her entire world was going to turn upside down.

The mayor allowed people from the ravaged cities to take refuge in Holly Springs. Over two-thirds of the residents of Holly Springs had fled for safety. Ida assumed that her family members were among them. However, both parents decided to be kind and help others who were ailing.

One fall day, Ida saw some familiar faces coming to her grandmother’s farm. She was expecting good news. Instead she was handed a note that read:

Jim and Lizzie Wells have both died of the fever. They died within 24 hours of each other. The children are all at home and the Howard Association has put a woman there to take care of them. Send word to Ida.

Ida was stunned when she read the words. Her entire body went numb, and she could barely shed a tear. All she could think was that it couldn’t be true. There was no way that both of her parents were gone, leaving seven children to fend almost for themselves. But she did not have the luxury to spend much time mourning. There was too much to do in order to try to keep her family together. At the age of sixteen, she had to be the leader of her family. She realized that she must return home to care for her brothers and sisters, who might also be ill. All she could think was how awful it must have been for them to watch their parents die. Not only that—they were all alone in the house while it happened.

Ida was determined to get back to Holly Springs, even though it was a dangerous proposition. Train conductors had died. Passenger trains weren’t running. Ida was sternly warned that she herself could get sick. But that would not stop her from getting home. Despite protests from everyone, including her grandmother, Ida proclaimed that as the oldest of seven children she had to do whatever was necessary to be there for her brothers and sisters.

Adding to her heartbreak, once she arrived back home she learned that her youngest brother, Stanley, had died along with her parents. Despite her anguish, Ida had no time to mourn. With the help of a nurse, she tended to her four sick siblings. Luckily, neither she nor Eugenia fell ill. After several harrowing weeks, the epidemic finally ended later in the fall. Ida had spent time trying to come up with a plan to take care of her siblings to keep them all together. The last thing she could imagine was being separated from her siblings after they all had lost their parents. The agony her mother had always expressed about never seeing most of her family again haunted Ida. And she wanted to do everything possible to make sure she and her siblings stayed together.

Her childhood was officially over. Even though her father’s friends offered to split up the children and take care of them, Ida vowed to keep everyone together. Luckily, James and Elizabeth Wells had been resourceful and frugal: James had purchased a small house and had left the children three hundred dollars. That was enough money to support them for several months while Ida prepared for a teacher’s test. She lengthened her dresses and pulled her hair into a bun to make herself appear older than sixteen. After passing the test, she was assigned to a school for Black children six miles out in the country. She then took on the adult responsibility of being the breadwinner and caretaker.

Ida was able to cover all of the family’s expenses with her monthly salary of twenty-five dollars. But traveling by mule on the unpaved route between her school and Holly Springs was exhausting. The slow, arduous journey took hours. So Ida arranged to live with her students’ families during the week and to return home on the weekends.

Ida needed help raising her siblings, especially since she had to live away during the week. Grandmother Peggy moved from her farm into the Holly Springs house to care for the children. With her demanding schedule of teaching all week, then spending the entire weekend washing, ironing, cooking, and grading papers, Ida worked almost around the clock. She had no time for dating, socializing, or having any type of hobbies or fun. Her only pleasure was reading, which filled any spare moment she could find.

After Grandmother Peggy suffered a stroke and moved back to her farm, and Ida endured almost two more years of her grueling schedule with the help of an old friend, she was completely worn out. She had to admit to herself that she just couldn’t do it all anymore. Her brothers were growing into teenagers, and her sisters still needed a lot of care. She was only eighteen years old. Finally, Ida accepted help from her aunts.

That help came at a great cost. Her mother’s sister, Aunt Belle, volunteered to care for Eugenia and to put James and George to work on her Mississippi farm. Aunt Fannie, who had lost her husband in the yellow fever epidemic and was taking care of three children on her own, convinced Ida, Annie, and Lily to move into her Memphis home. Everything the Wells children had known would become a memory. And Ida knew that the possibility of all six of them living together again was remote. She had worked herself to the bone to keep everyone together, but it had finally become too much to bear. They left the only place they had ever known to live with aunts in two different states. It was the last time they ever lived together.

Once in Memphis, Ida found a teaching position in Woodstock, Tennessee, fourteen miles from the city. Her mule-riding days were over. She now traveled back and forth by train. She worked in Woodstock for a few years before securing a higher-paying position in Memphis.

During Reconstruction, southern states were strictly regulated and required to grant certain rights to Black citizens in order to rejoin the union. When Reconstruction ended in 1877, many states enthusiastically took advantage of “states’ rights” and passed Jim Crow laws to resegregate everything.

Ida grew up having white teachers who were kind and generous. Her father had taught her that she needed to fight for her rights and no one could make her feel that she was less than anyone else. Ida had learned from her teachers to be responsible and to serve others. The Christian instructors encouraged Ida to act like a lady at all times, a lesson she took to heart.

A typical rural schoolhouse in the 1880s.

Beale Street Historic District in Memphis, Tennessee, circa 1970.

Formerly enslaved women, like her mother, worked particularly hard to be ladylike. As enslaved workers, they had toiled long, hard hours doing grueling work. At the end of each day, their backs had ached and their hands had become calloused from manual labor. After the war, Black women looked forward to being treated with the same respect as white women. They cherished the opportunity to partake in otherwise commonplace practices they had been denied as enslaved persons, like caring for their own children and households and having control over their living spaces. They wanted to be shown the same level of respect that white women enjoyed. They believed that looking and acting like “ladies” were ways to obtain that respect. White gloves, fine manners, and starched curtains took on enormous meaning.

So of course, when Tennessee passed its first Jim Crow law in 1881, specifying that Black and white train passengers ride in separate cars, Ida was incensed. After all she’d learned and experienced, how could she not fight to remain in her rightful place as a lady?

Ida’s belief that she deserved to enjoy all of the opportunities and freedoms that were the promise of the United States was a driving force in her life. She went on to fight for justice and equality in the law, education, housing, employment, and politics. And her tactic of truth-telling as a weapon to challenge unequal systems and structures has impacted our country for decades since. Countless activists, organizers, journalists, and public officials have drawn inspiration from her life and the work she did to push the country toward a freedom that many people have never known.