[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 5807]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 SENATE RESOLUTION 494--HONORING IDA B. WELLS FOR HER ACTIVISM IN THE 
 CIVIL RIGHTS AND WOMEN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENTS AND FOR HER INFLUENTIAL AND 
                        INSPIRATIONAL LEADERSHIP

  Ms. LANDRIEU (for herself and Mr. Wicker) submitted the following 
resolution; which was considered and agreed to:

                              S. Res. 494

       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; and
       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
       Resolved, 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.

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