Historical Article prepared for 175th Anniversary of Metropolitan A.M.E. Church AME Church Ida B. Wells At Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) Church Ida B. Wells was born in Mississippi in 1862. She was a Black newspaper editor, suffragist, sociologist and leader of the Civil Rights movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the 1890s, Ida B. Wells began to document the lynching of Black Americans. A persuasive speaker, she traveled internationally on lecture tours promoting equality for Blacks and voting rights for Blacks and for women. “Miss Wells made a National Reputation as editor of the Memphis Free Speech, the publication of which she was compelled to suspend because of her Bold, Fearless and Intelligent Denunciation of Mob Violence and the enactment and enforcement of malicious and degrading class Laws.” “On October 31, (1892) Ida B. Wells spoke at Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, D. C.; the subject: ‘Southern Mob Rule.’ Although the meeting was given extensive advertising and support by the local newspaper, The Washington Bee, as well as by Frederick Douglass and T. Thomas Fortune, the turnout was quite small. Frederick Douglass was embarrassed by the reception Wells received and promised to reschedule and deliver a larger crowd. “The Black community of Washington D.C. rallied to support Ida B. Wells’ return engagement at Metropolitan AME Church on February 3, (1893). (Frederick) Douglass’ promise to Wells that if she came back, he would guarantee a large crowd came true; the church was filled with what Wells called ‘one of the biggest audiences I had ever seen.’ Douglass’ success was partially due to his recruitment of the of the city’s prominent Black women to take a role in the event. Douglass presided, aided by Anna J. Cooper, principal of Washington’s Black high school, and Lucy Moten, head of the Miner Normal School (later Miner Teachers College and now the University of the District of Columbia). Mary Church Terrell, perhaps the city most prominent Black woman, introduced each speaker.” In January 1894, Frederick Douglass returned to Metropolitan AME Church and gave his last great speech “The Lesson of The Hour.” That speech was in support of the anti-lynching crusade of Ida B. Wells. Ida B. Wells Barnett was the lone woman in a group of eleven Black leaders who met with President Woodrow Wilson in the fall of 1913. The Black leaders went to the White House in protest of the segregationist policies of the new Wilson administration. Ida B. Wells Barnett died in Chicago in March 1931. The Wells-Barnett home, at 3624 South Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, Chicago, Illinois, is now a National Historic Landmark. Thelma Dean Jacobs
Posted on: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 11:40:52 +0000
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