Ida Wells-Barnett and Lynch Laws. Ida Wells-Barnett was born in 1862 in Holly Springs, Mississippi to slave par-ents and in her sixty-nine years of life, accomplished a great many things. Remembered as the legendary anti-lynching crusader and militant journalist, she became a teacher at the young age of fourteen to support her siblings after the loss of their parents to the yellow fever epidemic. With the termination of her em-ployment at the public school, Wells-Barnett began …showed first 75 words of 1444 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1444 total…an ac-tive role in aiding her in her fight to outlaw lynching. With the support and assistance of those who heard and were affected by the words of her speech, Wells-Barnett's goal of persuading Congress to pass a lynch law, where the lynch mobs are persecuted, would be one step closer to becoming a reality. Bibliography: Guy-Sheftall, Beverly (Eds.). (1995). Words of Fire. New York: The New Press. Wells-Barnett, Ida (1900). Lynch Law in America. pages 69-76