Plaque for civil rights heroine
APLAQUE commemorating a US civil rights activist who spoke out about the barbarity of lynchings has been unveiled at the spot where she lived for a time in Birmingham.
The ceremony took place at the site of the Edgbaston home where Ida B Wells once stayed. Edgbaston Community Centre, in Woodview Drive, off Lee Bank Middleway, now stands on the spot.
During her time in the city, Wells, who was born in 1862, mobilised women in Birmingham and London against lynching in the American Deep South.
The plaque was created after the Nubian Jak Trust, an Afro-Caribbean community group, identified the spot where Wells stayed. In those days, the address was 66 Gough Road, before that part of the street was renamed.
The memorial, paid for by the University of Nottingham, was unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Yvonne Mosquito, and Wells’ great grandson, Dan Duster, who appeared via video link from America.
Councillor Mosquito said: “Ida B Wells was undoubtedly one of the greatest female leaders of the 20th century.
“Her bravery in tackling racism and fighting for women’s suffrage is renowned.
“We are proud of her historical con- nection with Edgbaston, and even more so now that she will be permanently memorialised with a plaque in the city.”
Wells famously filed a law suit against a train car company in Memphis for unfair treatment after being thrown off a first-class carriage in 1884.
She won the case, but the ruling was overturned in a federal court. This, and the indiscriminate lynching of African Americans, encouraged her to publish her experiences in a pamphlet.
The campaigner was one of founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
She also co-owned a newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee, the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight, which bravely fought for the rights of oppressed black residents.
The hard-hitting articles so inflamed the ruling class that a mob burned down the newspaper office and presses.
Wells was forced to flee to Chicago, and she later came to Birmingham in 1894, staying in Gough Street, and giving frequent lectures.
She spoke at the city’s Young Men’s Christian Assembly in New Street, and at the Methodist Central Hall, in Corporation Street.
Her condemnation of the atrocities suffered by the Deep South’s black pop-
the ulace was not universally popular, however.
One councillor told the Birmingham Daily Post at the time he could see no point in being expected to “give attention to matters of municipal detail in a civilised country at a great distance where any interference by English people would be an impertinence”.
Wells died in Chicago in 1931, at the age of 68.
Dan Duster said: “Her travels to the United Kingdom were significant in helping to sharpen her skills to fight for justice and equal rights.
“It was in the UK that she was able to further expose the international community to the extent, brutal violence, and reasons used for lynching that were taking place in the US.” Chairman of Edgbaston Community Centre, Pastor Derrick Dunkley said: “Unveiling a blue plaque for human rights activist Ida B Wells at the centre is a real honour.
“Her fight for equality and her antilynching campaigns which brought her to Edgbaston, are aligned to Birmingham’s rich heritage of supporting social justice.
“We are proud that this blue plaque will enable the legacy and amazing story of an often-forgotten heroine of civil rights to be remembered and told.”