IDA B. WELLS MARCHES FOR THE VOTE

A tribute to a tireless African American journalist and crusader for social justice.

Presenting her subject as a woman who learned the importance of doing “the right thing” from her parents and tallying her achievements up to the eve of World War I, Johnson mentions her anti-lynching campaign in passing but really focuses on her women’s suffrage work—and in particular her defiance of the racist stance taken by Alice Paul and the all-white National American Woman Suffrage Association. Quoting Paul’s “despicable” assertion that the planned Washington, D.C., march of 1913 “must have a white procession, or a Negro procession, or no procession at all,” the author heatedly comments that the Association “did not care about African American, Asian American, or Mexican American women. They were not concerned about Indigenous women, whose ancestors were the first to live on this land.” Nonetheless, once the march began, Wells stepped out of the crowd of spectators and “did the brave and bold and truthful thing” by joining her state’s contingent uninvited. The bold stare Wells directs out from the climactic final scene challenges viewers to realize that when it comes to gender and racial equality, there’s still work to be done.

Young activists in search of role models will find much to admire in this tough, courageous woman.