CITY OF CHICAGO UNVEILS NEW STREET SIGN THAT HONORS CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER

Ida B. Wells
Ida B. Wells

City of Chicago Unveils New Street Sign That Honors Civil Rights Leader

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

Ida B. Wells was an African-American journalist, abolitionist, feminist, and activist who dedicated her life to fighting for women’s rights and African American justice. To honor this important piece of black history and her legacy, street signs for the new Ida B. Wells Drive, formerly Congress Parkway, were recently unveiled in downtown Chicago.

“This was, relatively speaking, an easy fight but it wasn’t that easy. It was easy compared to the struggles that Ida B. Wells had to face early on in her life,” said Fourth Ward Alderman Sophia King who led the effort in City Hall.

“She truly was an original boss, spoke truth to power, and walked through fear into justice and changed the landscape of Chicago and the world.”

Wells was born into slavery in 1862 and was the oldest daughter in her family. Thanks to the Emancipation Proclamation, Wells, her family, and the rest of the Confederate slaves were given their freedom about six months after her birth, according to biography.com.

After the lynching of one of her friends, Wells began investigating white mob violence across the south and was skeptical about the reasons black men were being lynched. She wrote several columns in local newspapers and published her findings in a pamphlet which enraged locals and after a few months of increasing threats of violence against her she decided to relocate to Chicago.

Once in Chicago, Wells became a leader in the women’s suffrage movement despite having to regularly confront white women within the movement who ignored lynchings and ridiculed her views, according to the National Women’s History Museum.

“Ida B. Wells spent her life as an activist and seeking to ensure that women, and black women in particular, were not isolated from political movements and activism despite the racism and sexism that we must often contend with even to this day. She founded the Alpha Suffrage Club right here in Chicago because she understood that black women deserve the same political rights and access to the ballot despite efforts to the contrary to exclude them from the women's suffrage movement,” said Juliana Stratton, lieutenant governor of Illinois.

This is the first official street name change in Chicago since South Parkway was renamed Martin Luther King Drive in 1968 and Ida B. Wells Drive is the first street in downtown Chicago to be named after an African American woman, according to Alderman King.

“It’s actually bittersweet that it has taken so long, but we are here,” said

King. “Ida B. Wells said, ‘the people must know before they can act’ and as young people say, now we know. I want to thank all of you for joining us today and I’m glad to be joined by so many people that understand the significance

of having the first street downtown named after an African American woman.

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