Chicago teens get lesson on activism and justice from great-granddaughter of Ida B. Wells
Some Chicago teenagers got a history lesson Thursday from none other than the great-granddaughter of Ida B. Wells, the courageous journalist and civil rights activist.
Michelle Duster is more than proud of her great-grandmother.
"For some people, she was problem, but for some people, she was a champion and brave and courageous," Duster said, "and she did not back down."
Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was an investigative journalist who fought against racism and sexism — working in Memphis, and then coming to Chicago after facing threats for her exposé on an 1892 lynching, as noted in published reports.
Duster said Wells was very stubborn and outspoken, which can be taken as a positive or negative.
"You know, the kind of women that are called difficult, 'You're so difficult!'" said Duster. "But then she also became a historical icon. These difficult women are the ones that make change."
Duster, along with Danyel Fulton — who plays Wells in Shaina Taub's Tony Award-winning Broadway musical "Suffs," now onstage at Chicago's CIBC Theatre — spoke Thursday with teens from Girls Inc. of Chicago.
"We can look at her example and try to do our own version of what that is today," Fulton said.
They met in the same building where Wells was an editor for the Chicago Bee newspaper.
Josie Singleton, 18, recently graduated from Kenwood Academy, and said she learned a lot from the event.
"It just gave me a sense of like understanding more like, as Miss Danyel said, we don't learn about this in school," said Singleton. "This isn't something that automatically comes with, you know, the textbook, you know, that you get in the beginning of the school year. This is something you either have to go out and look for on your own, or you have to ask the right people."
After having a meaningful conversation with Girls Inc. of Chicago, Duster and Fulton toured specific sites across Chicago that honor Ida B. Wells, such as the Ida B. Wells-Barnett House at 3624 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., where Wells and husband Ferdinand Lee Barnett once lived.
"I'm amazed that they were able to, you know, acquire a property like this, especially during that time," said Duster.
Wells fought tirelessly for the right of all women to vote, despite facing racism within the suffrage movement.
"This is not the first time in our country that we are dealing with backlash and resistance to progress," Duster said.
It's a message that Duster says still resonates today.
"Suffs" is still onstage at the CIBC Theatre for another two weeks.
