Born in Mississippi within a year of emancipation, journalist and activist Ida B. Wells lit up the lynching-laden, injustice-soaked Jim Crow-era south with boycotts, legal battles, and scorching editorials. As a fierce investigative journalist, she unveiled racist violence and humanized the stories of the victims. Despite her remarkable impact, Wells never received an obituary in The New York Times—until now. As part of a project called Overlooked, Wells’ newly penned obituary will join those of other remarkable women in history. Nikole Hannah-Jones (investigative reporter for The New York Times Magazine); Michelle Duster (Wells’ great granddaughter); and Eve L. Ewing come together in recognition of the enduring legacy of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and the equally enduring fight for racial justice. Natalie Moore (South Side bureau reporter for WBEZ) will moderate.

This program is presented in partnership with The New York Times and the Chicago Urban League, with the support of the Lohengrin Foundation.

Preorder your copy of Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side through the CHF box office and save 20%.

Nikole Hannah-Jones
Nikole Hannah-Jones is a domestic correspondent for the New York Times Magazine focusing on racial injustice. She has written on federal failures to enforce the Fair Housing Act, the resegregation of American schools, and policing in America. She has received a National Magazine Award, a Peabody and a Polk Award for her extensive reporting on the ways segregation in housing and schools is maintained through official action and policy.

Michelle Duster
Michelle Duster is an author, speaker, public historian, and professor of writing at Columbia College Chicago. She is active with various local and national projects, committees, and organizations that create, document and promote the contributions African American women have made to this country. The great-granddaughter of Ida B. Wells, her books include Ida In Her Own Words and Ida From Abroad. She is the co-author of Shifts: An Anthology of Women’s Growth Through Change and Michelle Obama’s Impact on African American Women and Girls.

Eve L. Ewing
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SERVICE ADMINISTRATION
Eve L. Ewing is a poet, essayist, visual artist, educator, and a sociologist at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. Dr. Ewing’s work has appeared in the New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, the Nation, and the New Republic. She is the author of Electric Arches, a collection of poetry, essays and visual art. Her most recent book is Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side. She is also host of Bughouse Square with Eve Ewing, the new WFMT podcast that juxtaposes remarkable voices from the past, drawn from the WFMT Studs Terkel Radio Archive, and conversations with present-day luminaries.

Natalie Moore
Natalie Moore is the author of The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation. She is the South Side bureau reporter for WBEZ. Before joining WBEZ, she covered Detroit City Council for Detroit News. She worked as an education reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and a reporter for the Associated Press in Jerusalem.

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Tags: Chicago, Chicago Humanities Festival, Eve L. Ewing, Grand Boulevard, Harold Washington Cultural Center, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Michelle Duster, Natalie Moore, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Overlooked: Ida B. Wells