Brutal Truth-Ida B. Wells
Writing Women Into History
This project explores the life of a woman who changed not just attitudes but saved lives and changed the course of history by exposing the truth. We are living through revolutionary times for women. The women’s march in January 2017 triggered a worldwide movement and new wave of feminism, one which is more inclusive. February 2018 marks the centenary of the women’s right for vote and the annual Black History month. The vote was not won for all women from that time and it wasn’t
until the civil rights movement in the 1960s that all women, of all races could legally vote. Right now, the Times Up and #MeToo campaigns highlight the struggles of working women who are standing up and exposing how they have been treated by the men in the industry they work in. We live in an era were the media is constantly questioned. The fake news phenomenon leading to false story being published. Clickbait news stories and shares on Facebook, retweets and anger in 140 characters. The cover ups the “open secrets” dominate the entertainment industry. When you think of black female revolutionaries you may think of Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat in 1955 or Angela Davis speaking out in the 1970s or more recently to Tarana Burke, creator of #MeToo but one name is usually unrepresented on these lists. Her name was Ida B. Wells. She fought not to give up her seat 71 years before Rosa, she fought to highlight the truth of the black American struggle 79 years before Martin Luther king had a dream. Her immense bravery, intelligence as forward thinking inspired this project. Ida B. Wells was an black journalist and activist who led an anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s. A bold outspoken successful black woman in south just after slavery ended in America however living in Mississippi at this time she faced extreme racial prejudices and were restricted by discriminatory rules and practices. A Journalist, founder of the NAACP, she was one of the first people to publicise the horrors of lynching to the to publicise the horrors of lynching to the American public by forming her own newspaper.
No physical copies of the newspapers Ida B. Wells currently exist so this publication format was dictated by how her audience would have viewed her work and bringing that back for a modern audience. The type choices were informed by the traditions of newspaper printing and iconography associated with the civil rights movement. Type was used in ways to highlight the bold nature of her writing and to represent the history of the time period in which she lived.
No physical copies of the newspapers Ida B. Wells currently exist so this publication format was dictated by how her audience would have viewed her work and bringing that back for a modern audience. The type choices were informed by the traditions of newspaper printing and iconography associated with the civil rights movement. Type was used in ways to highlight the bold nature of her writing and to represent the history of the time period in which she lived.
