Ida B. Wells...and Beyond...

Note - this was discovered in a trove of letters dating back to the 1930s; we thought it would be interesting to share this one with you:

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It’s always a pity when history contains nothing but a dream.

I’m talking about life in America and how these people seem determined to forget all of her hard work and how far she had to travel to make her name known…

Ida… Ida, Ida, Ida…

Now, I know that she’s in the papers at the moment – well, the right papers, anyway – but that can change so easily. We are all out of work, hungry, desperate, and it looks like that Roosevelt fella is gonna be given a chance to become the president. We are moving on from things so quickly that we might forget everything that came before us.

Well, not everything. How could I forget everything?

I know that it all started for her on a train.

Imagine that. She had the nerve to travel on a train and not give up her seat because of her race. She never knew that it would be a problem for her, I guess. Sometimes these youngsters think the past don’t apply to them. But she learned the lesson that the price of a ticket does not include the price of being who you are.

And I guess that is why she became a writer.

I have all the books and pamphlets. I even found some of the newspaper articles and re-read them when I can. I’m lucky to have some work, but I don’t take any of my free time and waste it with a drink. I am determined to put it all together so that we all know the truth. None of them major papers are giving her the respect she deserves, and they did not do so back then (New York Times: “Mulatress” – never even heard that one before, and I’ve heard it all). May be the reason why she started her own paper…

May be the reason why they burned it down…

She was damn lucky not to be in the ashes. I actually saw that on the day it happened because I was young enough to be ignored, even by a crowd of white people that angry and determined to not let the truth out.

And what did they expect? They took pictures of it all and they let them put that ugliness on postcards and in their papers. Why was it any different when it showed up in her paper?

Sorry, I gotta focus on this. Not much time to really write as much as I want to…

She also lost friends because of Jim Crow. We are still losing friends to that old jerk, but back then it was so much worse. You just expected to see your family get the message that they were no longer welcome in the neighbourhood. You knew that someone you knew would be swinging from a tree or suddenly disappear and the police would not make much of an effort to investigate. I got used to so much as a child that I cannot share with my own kids. And she had four of them. I’m sure that there were a lot of interesting talks around the dinner table about what their mama went through…if she allowed it. I doubt they wanted to bring it up before grace was said.

Okay, I better hurry this up.

I heard about the trips overseas and how she finally got the respect she deserved. My son served over there, and he always told me how surprised he was to find that there were Europeans whiter than white who were happy to see him and his brothers in arms marching up the road to defend their towns and villages. And Ida was there before any of this went on. She was probably happy to get away from the constant threats and nonsense she got from the press, police and politicians. And then she was treated with respect by their press, police and politicians! Imagine meeting royalty and writers who are still whiter than white and yet they want to talk to you like you are a real person, not some child or animal in a zoo. I can’t even imagine that much.

And why didn’t she stay? I would have. All these soldiers coming back and not finding work, being attacked and killed for the right to not be treated as an equal. My son was lucky to not be involved in anything too real, but not so many others here got away from the heat. There was so much going on all over the place and it wasn’t just in the south.

So, let’s talk about Chicago.

That was an interesting story. She was at it again, fighting the good fight, but this time she had more support on her side. That nice Ms. Addams recognized a kindred spirit when they met. You could see it in the photos and I even saw it in person once. Someone decided that they would have a debate and made the mistake of letting them both talk against the powers that be (probably thought that two women would be a safe target for a politician). I really wish that sound had existed on film at the time. You would have had a very entertaining flick for the crowds! They destroyed him – strange I cannot remember his name, isn’t it – and ended up not letting the schools here get segregated.

Ah, time to head out soon.

One last thing: the vote. She got it, like we all did, but it was much harder for her to be involved with that one. Imagine asking her to do all that canvassing and talking and defending of herself and her sex, and they still did not want to see her at the head of a demonstration. I guess she just could not listen to them – always stubborn, that one – and her photo with the other suffragettes was on the front page of their papers again (still thought it would stop the vote somehow, I think). A final victory for us all.

And now, she’s gone. I promised to be at her funeral, and I am going to make it. If the minister expects this to go off without a hitch, he knows that I have to be one of the people in that congregation. My people have the flowers and the yard all set. Everyone who could gave what little they had for a stone and I got someone to take a picture for the local rags. Will they want it? Who cares? It will go with the books and pamphlets and articles here, and I will publish it all soon.

No one deserves to forget the truth.

No one deserves to forget our Ida.

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The above was written by an anonymous source. Many efforts were made to discover who the author was, but to this day there has been no success in finding them. If you have any information, please contact us.

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