EDITOR'S COMMENTS:

It was in Memphis where Ida B. Wells had the seeds planted for her "Crusade for Justice."

Once while aboard a train the conductor refused to take her ticket. He told her to go to the smoking car where the "colored" people were. She refused. When he tried to remove her she sunk her teeth into his arm. He went and got some help to remove her. She somehow held onto her ticket.

She then filed a lawsuit against the railroad for her treatment. Her lawyer, who was "colored," was bought out by the railroad. Since he was the only "colored lawyer" in town, she had to secure a white one. He followed through and prosecuted her case successfully. However, it was overturned on appeal.

She had to bare the financial responsibility of the suit on her own, as her community did not perceive it as a racial issue. However, the railroads and the state did because its "separate but equal" implications.

She started writing articles for a local church paper. She used the story of her lawsuit and its results as her first article. Before long her articles were being published in other church papers, and later in some "Negro weeklies."

Two men invited to write for their local newspaper, the Free Speech and Headlight. She came aboard under the condition that she would be a full partner. So she invested her money in the paper and became a one-third owner and editor.

She wrote regular articles harshly critical of the local school district for the conditions of the "colored" schools. It is not surprising that these articles ultimately led to her dismissal from her teaching position.

She then threw herself full time into her newspaper work and found out that she could support herself in that line of work. She shortened the papers name to Free Speech and helped to increase its subscriptions.

The event that catapulted her into her "Crusade for Justice" was what is referred to as the "Lynching at the Curve." Three men-Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Henry Stewart -owned a grocery store in a densely populated suburb. It was in a district known as "the curve" because the streetcar line curved at that point.

There was already a store in this part of town mostly populated by Black folks that was owned by a white man. Everybody in town knew Tommie, and he was well liked. He and his wife, Betty, were among Ms Wells' best friends and she was the godmother to their little girl. Tommie used to delivered mail to Free Speech's office, and whatever he knew in the way of news they got it first. He owned his own house and had saved up enough money to go in the grocery business, which he threw his heart and soul into.

The Black residents soon started patronizing Tommie's store, the "People's Grocery Company," to the dismay of the owner of the white store. Most of the district's residents belonged to Tommie's church or his lodge. So he was not worried about the white owner's hostility.

One day some white and Black boys got into a fight over a game of marbles. The Black boys won the fight. The father of the white boys whipped the Black winner of the fight. The father of the Black boy, and some of his friends, stepped up to avenge his son's flogging by the white boy's father. The Black men won that fight. The white man had them arrested. Also, the owners of the Black store had also been drawn into the ruckus.

Even though the charges were dismissed with some fines, things escalated to the point where conflicts began. Blacks were rounded up and put in jail. The three owners of the People's Grocery Company were taken out by a mob and lynched.

Ida B. Wells, was out of town when this occurred. According to one of the papers, when Tom Moss was asked if he had any last words he was reported to have said, "tell my people to go west-there is no justice for them here."

Ms Wells wrote articles in the Free Speech echoing Thomas Moss' sentiments. Blacks took up the admonition and began to leave Memphis. So many left town that the white folks started going out of their way to get them to stay. Ida B. Wells continued to write scathing articles about the lynching and the white community that allowed it to happen. Finally, an angry mob destroyed the Free Speech and said that they would have lynched her too, if they could have found her.

Fortunately she was in Philadelphia covering a convention at the time. Now she had to stay away for good. However, she set out with a new found determination to continue writing and lecturing about lynching as she launched her "Crusade for Justice."

She soon realized that lynchings were used to keep Blacks in check. And that many of those who lynched Blacks who were successful in business, politics or who were outspoken persons or equal rights advocates. She crusaded to expose this reality.

In 1895 Ida B. Wells married newspaperman Ferdinand L. Burnett. He was too was a crusader for justice, and together they continued their fight for equal rights for Blacks. (They had two sons, Charles and Herman; and two daughters Ida B. and Alfreda.)

Ida B. Wells-Burnett became well renown for her work. She collaborated with many famous people, including Frederick Douglass, Mary McLeod Bethune, and W.E.B. Du Bois. She urge and inspired the establishment of many women's clubs and organizations. She and Du Bois were among the founders (the only Blacks so included) of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).