Author @rebelliousmag | Public Historian #IdaBtheQueen (1/26/21) + #VoiceOfTruth (1/4/22) abt my gr-grandmother #IdaBWells | Bookings: amanda@aaehq.com
Wakanda
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I refuse to argue about my actual humanity, history, or right to exist in certain spaces.
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Don't be embarrassed that you did not know something you were never taught. Be proud that you are now willing to learn.
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My great-grandmother #Idabwells endured death threats and everything she owned was destroyed by a mob because she dared to tell the truth. She deserves a monument. It's #Idastime newsy.com/stories/women-wait… via @newsyvideos
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What an amazing honor for my great-grandmother #IdaBWells to be recognized by @PulitzerPrizes almost 90 years after she gained her wings! Her life is a testament to the importance of #truthtelling, even in the face of danger. May she continue to be an inspiration! #Pulitzer
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"We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.”
- James Baldwin
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I am convinced that one of the reasons my great-grandmother #IdaBWells was able to write and publish her powerful editorials and pamphlets is because she OWNED the news outlet. No gatekeepers censoring her voice.
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I often wonder how much generational wealth would have been accumulated over the last 130+ years if my great-grandmother #IdaBWells' printing press hadn't been destroyed by a mob in 1892. We have never been compensated for that loss.
newpittsburghcourier.com/202…
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This lynching changed my great-grandmother #IdaBWells' life. They were only guilty of being successful businessmen. Her journalism chronicled this domestic #terrorism. Her printing press was destroyed & she was exiled from Memphis for exposing the #truth.
On this day in 1892, a white mob in Memphis lynched three Black men who had opened a grocery store earlier that year, threatening the racial order by forcing white business owners to compete. calendar.eji.org/racial-inju…
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Herstoric suffrage marker unveiled today honoring the Alpha Suffrage Club, which was founded by my great-grandmother #IdaBWells. At 31st & State in #Chicago.
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My great-grandmother #IdaBWells was 50 yrs old, had been fighting for justice & equality for 30 yrs, had founded a suffrage club, and then was asked by White women half her age to march in the back of the 1913 Suffrage Parade! Luckily she ignored them! #TheVotePBS
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The marker in honor of my great-grandmother #IdaBWells that was placed today (7/13) in the square of her hometown, Holly Springs, MS. A long overdue honor! #herstory #BlackHistory #Mississippi #journalism #BlackSuffragists
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My grandmother's mother, #IdaBWells, was born into slavery in 1862 Holly Springs, MS. How is that ancient history? Also, my great-great-grandparents and their parents were enslaved. #Juneteenth is significant and should be known by everyone.
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Rosa Parks was not the first. Say Claudette Colvin's name!
bbc.com/news/stories-4317179…
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Feeling the indomitable spirit of my great-grandmother #IdaBWells at the newly installed #IdaBWellsMonument called LIGHT OF TRUTH. 👊🏽
37th & Langley
#Chicago #Bronzeville #RichardHunt #BlackExcellence
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I’m so thrilled that my great-grandmother’s legacy will be commemorated by having her own street in downtown Chicago. First Black woman to do so. Goodbye Congress Parkway, hello Ida B. Wells Drive! #IdasTime #IdaBWells
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My great-grandmother #IdaBWells was born enslaved. She was a journalist, civil rights activist, & suffragist who was 58 yrs old when some women got the opportunity to vote in 1920. 100 yrs later, my soror @KamalaHarris became the VP candidate.
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The copies of the 2nd edition of my great-grandmother #IdaBWells' autobiography arrived! Woo hoo!
It was edited by my grandmother Alfreda & published by @UChicagoPress in 1970. She wrote the intro. I now added an afterword 50 yrs later! 3 generations in 1 book. #CiteBlackWomen
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New law in IL
Every public elementary & high school shall include in its curriculum a unit of instruction studying the events of Black History, including the history of the African slave trade, slavery in America, & the vestiges of slavery in this country
ilga.gov/legislation/publica…
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Not sure that @UNC is the right place for an organization with my great-grandmother #IdaBWells' name. They don't seem to value what she stood for.
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My uncle Troy Duster (grandson of #IdaBWells) founded an institute to support scholars of color. Now UC Berkeley wants to get rid of it. Join the effort to save it. sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti… via @sfchronicle
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My great-grandmother #IdaBWells spent her lifetime writing about and fighting against lynching. Now, 87 yrs after she died the Senate led by @SenKamalaHarris & @CoryBooker approved bipartisan legislation that would make lynching a federal crime.
abcn.ws/2A5HS0E via @ABC
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Although the #IdaBWells doll doesn't officially launch until mid-January, there has been an enthusiastic response. My brother & I worked with @Mattel over the past year to develop the doll & hope it inspires current & future leaders.
becauseofthemwecan.com/blogs…
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"The case I make for reparations is, virtually every institution with some degree of history in America, be it public, be it private, has a history of extracting wealth and resources out of the African-American community." newyorker.com/news/the-new-y…
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“My 8-year-old daughter was like, ‘Dad, it means a lot to be a black doctor in America. If you think about where we started… we made it pretty far,'” he explains. “I was like ‘You’re right, I think more of us should see this.'”
people.com/human-interest/bl…
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It is amazing how some people want to label you as "radical" because you love yourself enough to not be silenced, dismissed, ignored, or exploited.
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My brother Dan & I, great-grandchildren of #IdaBWells, worked closely with @mattel to develop the Barbie doll to be as authentic & historically accurate as possible. We're happy that so many are excited about it & hope it inspires all people to know their voices are important.
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"Most men today cannot conceive of a freedom that does not involve somebody's slavery."
~ W.E.B.Du Bois
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"The Hellfighters, the most celebrated African-American regiment in World War I, confronted racism even as they trained for war, helped bring jazz to France, then battled Germany longer than almost any other American doughboys."
smithsonianmag.com/history/o…
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Today (7/16) would the 157th birthday of my great-grandmother #IdaBWells. #OTD last year with enormous support from @prisonculture & @nhannahjones over $42,000 was raised for her #Chicago monument. The artist is working on it & installion is expected next year.
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My great-grandmother #IdaBWells went down to Arkansas to investigate what happened with this riot, help free the jailed men, then wrote a pamphlet about it. #DomesticTerrorism
wreg.com/2019/02/08/arkansas…
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My great-grandmother #IdaBWells co-owned the Memphis Free Speech, The New York Age, and owned The Conservator newspapers. She self-published her pamphlets. #Ownership gave her the freedom to expose & report our #truth.
Today - Feb 11th #Chicago unveils #IdaBWellsDrive
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"...black fathers were the most involved with their children daily, on a number of measures, of any other group of fathers — and in many cases, that was among fathers who didn’t live with their children, as well as those who did." nytimes.com/2015/06/08/opini…
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My great-grandmother #Idabwells endured death threats and everything she owned was destroyed by a mob because she dared to speak the truth. It's #Idastime for a monument in #Chicago idabwellsmonument.org newsy.com/stories/women-wait… via @newsyvideos
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And 71 years before Rosa Parks, my great-grandmother #IdaBWells refused to get off a train in TN, was thrown off, and she sued them in 1894.
#OTD 1953, Sarah Keys, who refused to give up her bus seat, became the 1st #African American to challenge “separate but equal” in bus segregation before the ICC. Her victory was made public one week before Rosa Parks boarded the bus. #history #sschat #tdih
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Today (7/20) my great-grandmother #IdaBWells got her well-designed honor at 37th & King Dr in her Bronzeville neighborhood of #Chicago a few yards from the house where she lived. We remember #OurHistory.
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Just think. There will be generations that think it's perfectly normal for a major street in downtown #Chicago to be named after an African American woman. #IdaBWells made history in her quest for equal rights. We made history by making her visible.
chicago.suntimes.com/news/id…
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"The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press." ~ #IdaBWells
(My great-grandmother +Winner of 2020 @PulitzerPrizes Citation)
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This goes down in history as one of the most meaningful & moving moments of my life. To speak at the White House at the signing of an antilynching bill that my great-grandmother #IdaBWells had advocated for 124 yrs ago in 1898. @POTUS @VP
Happening Now: Ida B.Wells great granddaughter, Michelle Duster, is speaking at the White House at the signing of the Emmet Till Antilynching bill. @BlackVotersMtr
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Everyone hears about the 4 girls who got killed in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing. We also need to hear about the 5th girl who survived. birminghamtimes.com/2017/09/… via @BhamTimes
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Thanks for lifting up my great-grandmother #IdaBWells and her children. My grandmother, Alfreda is the young girl at the bottom of the photo. To learn more, read Ida's autobiography edited by my grandmother, and my book IDA B THE QUEEN.
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My great-grandmother #IdaBWells, who the FBI once considered to be a "dangerous agitator" because she spoke truth to power, will soon have street signs in #Chicago for #IdaBWellsDrive
@eji_org @MSNBC @BrentNYT @rolandsmartin @TheRoot @theGrio @NAACP @Essence @NABJ
Searching early FBI files at @fold3, I found a couple of reports about Ida B. Wells. From 1919: "she is considered by all of the Intelligence officers as one of the most dangerous negro agitators" …
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As a descendant of #IdaBWells, who lost her printing press and endured death threats, because she ALSO dared to tell the truth, I STAND WITH YOU @AprilDRyan hollywoodreporter.com/news/t…
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#IdaBWellsDrive in #Chicago!
First major downtown street named after a woman or person of color!
#BecauseOfThemWeCan #CiteBlackWomen #BlackExcellence #journalism #truth #BlackHistoryMonth
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Let's stop minimizing reality through word choice.
Enslaved people were NOT *servants*
Enslaved women were NOT *mistresses*
We cannot sugar coat the brutality of slavery.
It was an inhumane, brutal, violent institution that lasted for almost 250 years in this country.
#truth
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Anna Julia Cooper she was born into slavery in North Carolina in 1858 and eventually went on to obtain a PhD at the University of Paris. She was a scholar, educator, activist and one of many #BlackSuffragists
stuffmomnevertoldyou.com/blo…
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On May 4, 1884 my great-grandmother #IdaBWells was removed from the "whites only" train car.
On May 4, 2020 she won a @PulitzerPrizes Special Citation
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Some people need to understand that Black people don't need to learn how to respond better to police--in order to avoid being murdered. Police need to learn how to respond better to Black people as equal human beings.
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We need to stop blaming young people for not knowing information that adults refuse to teach them.
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(From 2018)
"In less than 24 hours, the white mobs destroyed more than 1,000 homes and businesses. They set fire to schools, churches, libraries, and movie theaters, leveling entire city blocks." #DomesticTerrorism
npr.org/sections/codeswitch/…
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We live in a country where a 17-yr-old Black kid with Skittles & iced-tea is viewed as a threat, and a 17-yr-old white kid who crossed state lines with an AR-15 and kills two people is viewed as a sympathetic potential nursing student.
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My great-grandmother #Idabwells was one of the founders of the @NAACP. It's #Idastime to have a monument in her honor newsy.com/stories/women-wait… via @newsyvideos
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So proud to have been part of making #IdaBWells Drive happen! The FIRST street in downtown Chicago to be named after any woman or any person of color! 3 lanes each direction that feeds into 2 interstate highways. I290 & I94.
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Frederick Douglass gets enough attention. Let's start talking about his first wife!
smithsonianmag.com/history/h…
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I truly believe there are 825 people in the world who are willing to contribute $150 each at idabwellsmonument.org to fund the monument to my great-grandmother #Idabwells. After all she fought for justice it's #Idastime. newsy.com/amp/stories/women-…
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FYI, my great-grandmother #IdaBWells was 51 years old in 1913 -- the year Rosa Parks was born. She sued the Chesapeake, Ohio & Southwestern Railroad in 1884, 71 years before the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott. We all stand on shoulders.
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My great-grandmother #IdaBWells spoke out about how wrong the government was for doing this. She created & distributed buttons that said "Martyred Negro Soldiers". She was investigated by FBI and threatened with the charge of treason. libertywritersafrica.com/the…
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My great-grandmother #IdaBWells now has markers in 3 cities where she lived.
- Her hometown #HollySprings, MS where she lived until 18 (installed 7/13)
- #Memphis where she lived ages 18-30 (installed in the 1990s)
- #Chicago, she lived ages 33-68 (installed today)
Is NYC next?
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My great-grandmother #Idabwells is represented well at the @eji_org Legacy Museum in Montgomery. Time for her to be honored with a monument in Chicago. It's #Idastime 1800 people x $75 can do this together. idabwellsmonument.org theguardian.com/world/2018/a…
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Some white women tried to keep #BlackSuffragists on the margins or in the back. My great-grandmother #IdaBWells ignored them all and put herself front and center!
In 1913, Ida B Wells took part in 1st suffrage parade in Washington DC. When she & 60 other black women appeared, they were ordered to the back. She refused (“Either I go with you or not at all") & joined march. 6 yrs later, the House adopted the 19th Amendment. #WomensVote100
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"Under the Electoral College, black votes are submerged. It’s the precise reason for the success of the southern strategy. It’s precisely how, as Buckley might say, the South has prevailed." theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv…
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And what is so sad is that there are people who think that building a wall to keep brown people out is more of a priority than people being paid during the holidays, and access to healthcare, education, housing, food & more. #Racism is irrational.
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For those who are interested in learning more about my great-grandmother #Idabwells there is an entire weekend, July 12-15 where she is celebrated in her hometown of Holly Springs, MS. Feel free to come. rustcollege.edu/IdaBWells-Ba…
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I am really confused about how we can afford to send thousands of troops to the border to wait for "migrant caravan" to arrive from 800+ miles away, but we have insufficient resources to help Puerto Rico or Flint.
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My dear artistic icon, Richard Hunt, is now with the ancestors. Such a joy working with him on the monument to my great-grandmother, Ida B. Wells. He was there for the installation of his piece 2 yrs ago. Always so humble, dedicated, warm, generous, and amazing! RIP
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So happy that @prisonculture+@nhannahjones+ @iamtikasumpter+@JackieWoodson+@eji_org all made the dedication ceremony for the #IdaBWellsMonument special. My great-grandmother is smiling down on us. View ceremony facebook.com/michelle.duster…
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There are literally hundreds of monuments to men all around the country and less than 3% that honor women. Here's a chance to help create a monument to #Idabwells. Many ppl & @prisonculture helped me get closer to my goal. idabwellsmonument.org rewirenews.link/2sLEN1n
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After working on this for 13 years the #IdaBWellsMonument will be dedicated at 37th & Langley in two more days (June 30th). It will be the first monument to a Black woman in the city of #Chicago. Watch the HERstoric moment on FB Live at 9:30am CT.
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Thank you @prisonculture for helping to make this project possible! You rock. It's #Idastime idabwellsmonument.org chicagoreader.com/Bleader/ar…
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The 2nd edition of my great-grandmother #IdaBWells' book will be available May 13th. I wrote the afterword for it & @eveewing wrote the foreword.
amazon.com/Crusade-Justice-A…
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"Slave-holding parents and slave-holding family members gave girls enslaved people as gifts — for Christmas sometimes, when they turned 16 or when they turned 21." vox.com/2019/8/19/20807633/s… via @voxdotcom
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For #IdaBWells' 7/16 bday over $40k was donated for her monument. Thx @prisonculture @nhannahjones @shondarhimes @losangelista & 900+ others for all of your support & love. We made herstory together! She will be overlooked no more. nytimes.com/2018/03/16/podca…
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I'm no economist, but have always wondered how an economy can grow if only 400 families have any money.
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We live in a country where a 12-year-old Black boy playing with a toy in a park is viewed as more dangerous than an AR-15 carrying 17-year-old White boy who crosses state lines and murders two people.
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My great-grandmother #IdaBWells is starting to appear (lower right) on the 7-story #ChicagoSuffrageMural being installed on Wabash near Harrison. For the 1st time, 10 women who fought for our voting rights will now be represented together in public artwork. #HERstory #SheSpeaks
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I'm tired of the "richest country in the world" having insufficient money for everything except endless war, police state, mass incarceration, & golf outings.
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I can't remember a time when laws were passed to protect Black people's feelings or to make sure we were never uncomfortable.
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Two days later I am still processing the fact that @prisonculture & @nhannahjones helped raise over $40,000 for the monument to my great-grandmother #IdaBWells on her 7/16 birthday! True angels, advocates and powerful women. #blessed idabwellsmonument.org
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"...the enslaved & their descendants, did not own the house...Yet they built it, grew crops to pay for it, cleaned it & served meals in it. Their influence obtained through sweat & skill instead of money, is evident in the house..." postandcourier.com/news/desp… via @postandcourier
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For this who missed the @nytimes March 16th podcast about my great-grandmother #Idabwells you can listen here. I did the voiceover of her writings. ‘The Daily’: Women We Overlooked nyti.ms/2DxpfkZ
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My great-grandmother #IdaBWells gets her honor!
@lollybowean @deadlinedd @WBEZ @SistahScholar
@TalbertSwan @washingtonpost @TheRoot @theGrio
@TheAtlantic @guardian @jelani9 @washingtonpost
@CBSThisMorning @WVON1690 @TheView
eventbrite.com/e/ida-b-wells…
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I just don't understand how "pro-life" it is to poison waterways; pollute air; take away healthcare; add salt, sugar, transfat & chemicals to school lunches, frack every inch of land; & support war, hate & violence.
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2nd edition of my great-grandmother #IdaBWells' autobiography released 5/13/20. It was edited by my grandmother Alfreda & published by @UChicagoPress in 1970. She wrote the intro. I wrote afterword 50 yrs later! 3 generations in 1 book. @ABWHTruth @citeblackwomen @NABJ
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Most of the time when women are labeled as difficult, strong-willed, opinionated, unmanageable, or ridiculous, that affirms the fact that we're making an impact. #IdaBWells was called all those things and more. #IdaBtheQueen available wherever books are sold.
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So excited about this! It's truly my great-grandmother #IdaBWells' time! As someone who was born into slavery, she paved the way for the civil rights activists who came after her who might be more well-known than her--until now. cnn.com/travel/amp/ida-well-…
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"it's insulting to identify the relationship between a slave & a slave-owner using the term "mistress" when that term denotes a relationship predicated on mutual choice, autonomy, & affirmative consent — things slaves do not have." teenvogue.com/story/the-wash… via @TeenVogue
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I often wonder how much wealth would be in my family if my ancestors had been paid for their 244 yrs of labor, my great-grandmother's printing press had not been destroyed, and my father's generation had been paid their worth. #Reparations2020 newsweek.com/slavery-reparat…
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So happy to see that my great-grandmother #IdaBWells is on her way to having her own statue in #Memphis, almost 130 yrs after she faced death threats & her printing press was destroyed for exposing #truth about lynching. #Journalism usatoday.com/story/news/nati… via @usatoday
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Cute, short video about my great-grandmother #IdaBWells who now has a major street named after her in downtown #Chicago
digg.com/video/ida-b-wells-h…
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This extremely visible major street in downtown Chicago renamed after my great-grandmother #IdaBWells fills me with such pride. So happy I was involved in making this a reality in 2018.
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Black people are expected to have a higher level of sensitivity, knowledge, cultural awareness & maturity as teenagers than some others exhibit at age 60+.
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The outpouring for my great-grandmother #IdaBWells' monument has got to be historic! Over $32,000 donated online in the last 23 hours. @prisonculture @nhannahjones @shondarhimes @losangelista shondaland.com/inspire/a2214…
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My latest article about my great-grandmother #IdaBWells. #BlackSuffragists #19thAmendment
#suffrage100 time.com/5879344/ida-b-wells…
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Racism has been a pandemic for Black people in the US for 401 years. It has impacted every area of our lives, and the gaslighting to make us think we're imagining injustice is just as insidious as the institutional policies that are designed to crush us.
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The fact that so many "know nothing" about the 1921 #TulsaMassacre and are "unaware" about the fact that #Juneteenth exists are Exhibits A & B on why school curriculums need to be changed.
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"Black women leaders are not honored anywhere near commensurate with their deep historical contributions to the struggle for racial—and, more broadly, democratic—justice." bostonreview.net/blog/christ…
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"There should have been many more settlements. But a majority of whites in those states—whites who had often arrived after African-American pioneers—were doing everything they could to keep free black people out."
nyti.ms/2Mav12e
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Yes! Pittsburgh is taking down a statue depicting composer with shoe-less, enslaved black man sitting near his feet. Will replace with statue of an African American woman. #blackstatues
po.st/snt59F via @SmithsonianMag
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Such an honor for new school in DC to be named after my great-grandmother #IdaBWells!
washingtonpost.com/local/edu…
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