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Ida loses her parents and 10-month-old brother to yellow fever. In order to support her younger siblings (and keep them out of foster homes), Ida drops out of school and becomes a teacher in an all-black elementary school.
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A train conductor orders Wells to give up her seat on the train. She refuses, and later sues the railroad for illegal racial segregation.
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Sued and won court case for sueing the railroad for illegal racial segregation
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Ida Wells becomes a co-owner and editor for the "Free Speech and Headlight," and writes articles about anti-segregation and race-equality.
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Wells writes her famous speech, "Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.
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Wells writes her famous speech, "Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases." Wells discusses the social factors and causes behind lynch mobs and irrational fear of black men, and also protests racial inequality before the law.
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Ida Wells founds the N.A.A.C.P. alongside W. E. B. Du Bois, Archibald Grimké, Henry Moskowitz, Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villard, William English Walling, Florence Kelley, and Charles Edward Russell.
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Ida Wells begins writing her autobiography
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dies in Chicago