Ida: A Sword Among Lions May 29, 2008

At the turn of the 20th century, Ida B. Wells led the nation's first campaign against lynching, a practice that imperiled the lives of black men and women everywhere. Exiled from the South by 1892, she took her crusade across the country and throughout the British Isles before settling in Chicago to continue her activism as a journalist, suffragist and independent candidate who not only had to fight conservative adversaries, but icons of the civil rights and women's suffrage movements who sought to undermine her place in history. Paula Giddings is a Professor of Afro-American Studies at Smith College and the author of two books on the social and political history of African-American women. Her forthcoming biography of Ida B. Wells is entitled 'IDA: A Sword Among Lions.' Brent Staples is an editorial writer for The New York Times. His memoir, 'Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White,' won the Anisfield Wolff Book Award.