[This weekend we celebrate the 160th birthday of one of my favorite Americans, Ida B. Wells. So this week I’ve AmericanStudied a handful of fellow investigative journalists, leading up to this special tribute to the inimitable Wells!]
On one of
my favorite inspiring moments in a life absolutely overflowing with them.
I’ve
written a lot about Ida B. Wells in this space and elsewhere, from her vital investigative
journalism on the lynching epidemic to her
crucial commentary on the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition to her righteous
protest
within a protest at the 1914 Suffrage March in Washington. I’ve also
singled out in
a separate post the particularly courageous 1892 moment that I would put on
the very short list, and maybe at the top of that list, of the most inspiring in
American history. And I haven’t even had the chance to talk at length yet about
her crucial and far too often downplayed role in co-founding
the NAACP, or the groundbreaking women’s organization
she founded in Chicago, or the equally groundbreaking Black
Settlement House she and her husband created, or the time she ran
for statewide political office just a year before she passed away, or…
So yeah,
no shortage of incredible and inspiring moments in the life of one of my
top-two favorite Americans. But in this tribute post I wanted to highlight a
moment I only learned about recently, one that pulls together multiple sides of
Wells’ identity and life as she so often managed to, one that really represents
the grassroots yet groundbreaking community activism at the heart of all that
Wells did, and one that’s just damn beautiful (among many other adjectives):
her 1897
founding of a kindergarten in the basement of Chicago’s Bethel AME Church. That
moment is traced
in this NPR piece on Wells’ many legacies in Chicago, with much of the
information (throughout the piece and for this particular section) provided by
Wells’ great-granddaughter Michelle Duster. Duster’s book Ida
B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells (2021)
should be required reading for all Americans, and mostly I want to say a) read both
of those hyperlinked pieces and then b) pick up the book!
But I do
want to say one thing more about why I love this particular moment so much. Wells
was inspired to create the kindergarten not just out of a sense of communal
need (although yes, as always), but also because of her own role as a young
parent, her perspective on what her own growing children needed for their own
best chance at happiness and success. I know it can be difficult enough to get
us to better remember historical figures at all, but when we do, far too often
it’s through a pretty narrow or simplistic lens, a focus on one particular side
of their work or identity (such as Wells’ anti-lynching investigative journalism,
which was indeed exemplary and vital but just one slice of this incredibly
multi-layered person). When in truth, historical figures like Wells are as
three-dimensional as all people—and moreover, I would argue that a main thing
which makes our best figures so impressive and inspiring is the way in which
their vital work extends into every arena, of their identities and lives and of
our communities and society alike. So for her 160th birthday, I can
think of few better ways to pay tribute to the inspiring greatness of Ida B.
Wells than to remember that time she founded a kindergarten.
Next
series starts Monday,
Ben
PS. What
do you think? Other investigative journalists you’d highlight?
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