III 111th CONGRESS 2d Session S. RES. 494 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES April 20, 2010 Ms. Landrieu (for herself and Mr. Wicker) submitted the following resolution; which was considered and agreed to RESOLUTION Honoring Ida B. Wells for her activism in the civil rights and women’s rights movements and for her influential and inspirational leadership.

Whereas, Ida B. Wells was born on July 16 1862, and died March 25, 1931; Whereas in 1884, Ida B. Wells refused to give up her seat on a Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company train because of her skin color; Whereas in 1889, Ida B. Wells became co-owner and editor of Free Speech and Headlight, an anti-segregationist newspaper based in Memphis, Tennessee that published articles about racial injustice; Whereas Ida B. Wells conducted investigative journalism about the practice of lynching, printing many articles in an effort to combat this practice; Whereas Ida B. Wells worked with Frederick Douglass and other Black leaders in organizing a boycott of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago; Whereas in 1893, Ida B. Wells began working with the Chicago Conservator, the oldest African-American newspaper in the city; Whereas Ida B. Wells formed the Women's Era Club, the first civic organization for African-American women which later became the Ida B. Wells Club in honor of its founder; Whereas Ida B. Wells traveled throughout the British Isles and the United States teaching and giving speeches to bring awareness to the lynching problems in America, Whereas Ida B. Wells settled in Chicago and worked to improve conditions for the rapidly growing African-American population there; Whereas on February 1, 1990, the United States Postal Service issued a 25-cent postage stamp in honor of Ida B. Wells: Now therefore, be it

That the Senate— (1)commends the life of Ida B. Wells and her success as an African-American activist and business woman; (2)recognizes the many efforts Ida B. Wells made in advancing the interests of African-Americans in the fight for equality; and (3)requests the Secretary of the Senate to transmit an enrolled copy of this resolution for appropriate display in the hearing room of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.