A tour highlighting the story of a remarkable African American woman who travelled to Britain to campaign against slavery, racism and lynching from the 1830s to the late 1890s.
Ida B Wells was a journalist, criminologist, activist, author, a social reformer and an inspirational figure.
American, Black and female, she captured the hearts and minds of her UK counterparts because of her ardent campaigns for Social Justice and education for all.
Catherine Impey - British Quaker Activist against racial discrimination and founder of the first anti-racist journal ‘Anti-Caste’ invited Ida B Wells to the UK to support her UK campaign and ensured that she was hosted in one of the finest houses in Edgbaston.
She revolutionized black history by shining a light on white domestic terrorism in the United States - lynching and unfair Jim Crow laws. Wells visited Birmingham in 1893 and 1894.
Since the 18th Century the leafy suburbs of Edgbaston has been the political platform for civil rights activists and abolitionists, including the Birmingham Ladies Society founded by Lucy Townsend.
This tour also features other individuals and movements in Birmingham that campaigned for justice and human rights e.g.
- The age of 'Enlightenment'
- Women's rights and the suffragettes movement,
- The Quaker Movement & the Cadbury family
- Joseph Sturge and the Birmingham Industrialists who influenced the abolishment of slavery.
Today her legacy still lives on as an integral part of the American civil rights movement.
Image by Original: Mary Garrity Restored by Adam Cuerden - Based on image originally from NAEMVZELXQV2iw at Google Cultural Institute, zoom level maximum, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28135837
