Ida b. Wells Monument: Light of Truth
3739 S Langley Avenue (Bronzeville)
The Ida B. Wells Monument is the creation of celebrated sculptor Richard Hunt, and resides on the property formerly occupied by a public housing complex called The Ida B. Wells Homes. The monument is part of the City of Chicago’s Public Art Collection. The daughter of Mississippi slaves freed after the Civil War, Ida B. Wells became an early leader in the Civil Rights and women’s rights movements. She came to Chicago to help organize a boycott and contribute to the writing of a pamphlet called Why the Colored American is Not in the World’s Columbian Exposition. She remained in the city and was active in her own Ida B. Wells Club as well as the Chicago Women’s Club. Throughout her career, Wells stood up against injustice, writing, in pamphlets and for media such as the Chicago Conservator, about issues such as lynchings, Jim Crow laws and white suppression of black economic progress. Around 1894, she became the first black correspondent for a mainstream white newspaper. She spent the last 30 years of her life working for urban reform in Chicago. Her autobiography, Crusade for Justice, was unfinished when she died.
