Stephanie Bergeman: Remembering Ida B. Wells
Tuesday 25 September 2007
Saint Augustine wrote: “Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage: anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.†Ida B. Wells is a American incarnation of hope, because, during the 1890s, she was indignant that Americans could preach one thing and do the exact opposite, namely, pride itself on being “the land of the free and home of the brave†while lynching thousands of its own citizens, overwhelmingly, blacks in the South. But she also had the courage to write, speak out, raise her voice, and trouble the consciences of her fellow citizens at such an on-going crime against humanity.
Just at the time last week when more media attention was given to the Jena 6, my Social Justice classes were finishing Wells’s collection, Southern Horrors and Other Writings. Stephanie Bergeman had this personal response to Ida B. Wells…
“As a woman, Ida B. Wells definitely inspires me. Even in 2007, I sometimes feel that there are certain things I want to accomplish that might not be possible because I am a woman. Wells, however, demands me to stop and think. If she, a woman, a black woman, in the 1800’s could become a teacher, reporter, co-owner of a newspaper, and a member of various elite all female groups, than I, a white woman who is healthy, young, and in the 21st century can too stand up and pursue my dreams. We all have our obstacles and Ida B. Wells had more than most of us can ever conceptualize, understand, define, or experience. I admire her courage, persistence, and dedication. She looked at and felt fear and uncertainty every day and yet kept on speaking and writing in what she believed, even with her life on the line. Her struggle was from multiple sides. She had to overcome the perceptions of the African-American community, Southern whites, Northern whites, and in general from both women and men. She let each side’s hit make her stronger, more persistent and even more determined.”