Ida B. Wells was an African American journalist and Civil Rights leader. Wells spent many years in a crusade against lynching which brought her into contact with Douglass. Wells partly convinced Douglass to join the ant-lynching movement and the two sometimes shared the speakers stand together. Wells was also a noted feminist, a cause Douglass supported.
“Sometime that summer of 1892 he finally met Ida B. Wells, striking up an activist friendship that would animate his remaining years. Douglass was well aware of this extraordinary, but young and vulnerable, radical woman. He took on a fatherly mentor role toward her from the beginning, and she welcomed his support. From their first encounter, she saw Douglass as a heroic model, but one she felt safe in criticizing as well as adoring.”[1]
Ida B. Wells died on March 25, 1931 at the age of 68. She was buried in Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.
Exact Grave GPS coordinates: 41.770241, -87.602709
[1] David W. Blight, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018), 721.
The Graves of Frederick Douglass 