Essay on Ida B. Wells and Mary Mcleoud Bethune - 1628 Words

The history of The Black Civil Rights Movement in the United States is a fascinating account of a group of human beings, forcibly taken from their homeland, brought to a strange new continent, and forced to endure countless inhuman atrocities. Forced into a life of involuntary servitude to white slave owners, African Americans were to face an uphill battle for many years to come. Who would face that battle? To say the fight for black civil rights was a grassroots movement of ordinary people who accomplished extraordinary things would be an understatement. Countless people made it their lifes work to see the progression of civil rights in America. People like W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, A Phillip Randolph, Eleanor Roosevelt, and many†¦show more content†¦On two separate occasions, Wells sued the railway company and was victorious. Unfortunately, the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the lawsuits in 1887. Wells stated, I have firmly believed that the law was on our side and would, when appealed to it, give us justice . This statement seemed to exemplify the overall views of blacks that time. I could not imagine a more demoralizing turn of events. Two Steps Forward and One Step Back, is a phrase that is repeated throughout the fight for civil rights. 3 An extraordinary person by definition is one who is far more than usual or exceptionally remarkable. Ida B Wells life went above and beyond. As a black woman in the south she was a rarity. She was an educator and later became a journalist. Her journalism gave her a voice, a voice in which she boldly spoke out in a time where black men as well as women were seldom heard. The next tragic turn of events served as a platform for Ida B. Wells to lash out at the horrific act of lynching in the south in the late 1800s. In 1892 three of her friends were lynched. Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Henry Stewart. These three men were owners of Peoples Grocery Company, and their small grocery had taken away customers from competing white businesses. A group of angry white men thought they would eliminate the competition so they attacked Peoples grocery, but the owners fought back, shooting one of the