Ida Bell Wells-Barnett

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, more popularly known as Ida B. Wells, was an anti-lynching activist, pioneering journalist, and newspaper editor who championed the cause of Black America across the United States and overseas. Wells’ campaign against lynchings began in 1892 when three Black men, all friends of hers, were murdered by a violent White mob in Memphis, Tennessee, where Wells lived at the time. These events were a catalyst for Wells who soon after wrote an editorial calling for Blacks to immediately emigrate from Memphis, echoing the last words of one of the dying men to his killers: “Tell my people to go West—there is no justice for them here” (Wells 1970). Wells herself left Memphis in the months following the murders, barely one step ahead of her own lynching. She was not alone in her calls for Blacks to migrate from the South and she joined a chorus of Black intellectuals who advocated the same. Indeed, it is no coincidence that the resurgence in the back-to-Africa movement occurred at a time when hundreds of Black people were being lynched. However, there were differing opinions among leading Black thinkers and activists about to where Blacks should migrate. In contrast to some of her contemporaries, Wells offered only tepid support for Black migration to Africa, despite being a vocal proponent of Black emigration from the South. This chapter explores Wells’ views on Africa, Africa’s development, and Black migration to better understand how misconceptions of Africa, particularly Liberia, influenced her perspective. The material for the paper were derived from Wells’ professional writing, such as her 1892 essay in the AME Church Review titled “Afro-Americans and Africa,” as well as from her autobiography and published works about her life. The analysis should yield valuable lessons that can be applied to constructing a new Africa.