Whereas, Ida B. Wells was born on July 16 1862, and died
March 25, 1931;
Whereas in 1884, Ida B. Wells refused to give up her seat
on a Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company train because of her skin
color;
Whereas in 1889, Ida B. Wells became co-owner and editor
of Free Speech and Headlight, an anti-segregationist newspaper
based in Memphis, Tennessee that published articles about racial
injustice;
Whereas Ida B. Wells conducted investigative journalism
about the practice of lynching, printing many articles in an effort to combat
this practice;
Whereas Ida B. Wells worked with Frederick Douglass and
other Black leaders in organizing a boycott of the 1893 World's Columbian
Exposition in Chicago;
Whereas in 1893, Ida B. Wells began working with the
Chicago Conservator, the oldest African-American newspaper in
the city;
Whereas Ida B. Wells formed the Women's Era Club, the
first civic organization for African-American women which later became the Ida
B. Wells Club in honor of its founder;
Whereas Ida B. Wells traveled throughout the British Isles
and the United States teaching and giving speeches to bring awareness to the
lynching problems in America,
Whereas Ida B. Wells settled in Chicago and worked to
improve conditions for the rapidly growing African-American population
there;
Whereas on February 1, 1990, the United States Postal
Service issued a 25-cent postage stamp in honor of Ida B. Wells: Now therefore,
be it
That the Senate—
(1)commends the life
of Ida B. Wells and her success as an African-American activist and business
woman;
(2)recognizes the
many efforts Ida B. Wells made in advancing the interests of African-Americans
in the fight for equality; and
(3)requests the
Secretary of the Senate to transmit an enrolled copy of this resolution for
appropriate display in the hearing room of the Senate Committee on Small
Business and Entrepreneurship.