A TEACHING STRATEGY

Main Ideas
Ida Wells-Barnett participated in the National American Woman Suffrage Association Parade in the nation's capital on March 3, 1913. For Wells-Barnett, woman's suffrage became a tangential issue in conjunction with her activism against Jim Crowism and her campaign for the passage of anti-lynching legislation.

The parade, which represented a viable form of protest during the pre-mass-media era, can be re-created.

Connection with the Curriculum
The life of Ida Wells-Barnett spans the eras from Reconstruction to the Great Depression. Sections of her life can be integrated into lessons covering the following topics: slavery, black migration (North and West), rise of the black press, muckrakers, Jim Crowism, founding of the NAACP, growth of cities, and the woman's suffrage movement.

Because she participated in Chicago's and the national women's movements, her political participation for full enfranchisement is a model of the movement's local, state, and national emergence.

These lessons are best suited for coverage of the Progressive reform era and may be included in political science, women's studies, African-American, ethnic, and U. S. history classes.

Teaching Level
Grades 8-12

Materials for Each Student
• A copy of this article's content portion

• Any of several primary sources written by black investigative reporter Ida Wells-Barnett— Crusade for Justice, The Memphis Diary of Ida B. Wells, On Lynching, newspaper editorials, or personal diary entries

• Activity 1, 2, and 3 handouts

Objectives for Each Student
• Identify Ida Wells-Barnett as a crusader for justice in America.

• Analyze the steps of enfranchisement.

• Differentiate, compare, and evaluate the African-American women's agenda and the agenda of the southern women in the women's suffrage movement in 1913.

• Enumerate forms of protest activism.

• Formulate a plan of protest activism around an issue.

Opening the Lesson
• Groups of 3 to 5 students brainstorm, then list and categorize forms of protest activism.

• As a class, students identify the issues that provoked these forms of protest.

Examples:

Editorials:

Ida Wells-Barnett's anti-lynching news editorials

Boycotts:

Ida Wells-Barnett boycotted businesses that promoted Jim Crowism

Grassroots organization:

formation of NAACP and African-American women's clubs

Marches/parades:

Ida Wells-Barnett's participation in the NAWSA 1913 woman's suffrage parade

• Have students identify issues that would prompt them to take a personal stand.

Developing the Lesson
• Students should read the content portion of this article.

• After reading the article, students are to debate and rank the three issues Wells-Barnett deemed most important.

• Role play Ida Wells-Barnett, Virginia Brooks, Bell Squire, and Grace Wilber Trout discussing the significance of the NAWSA parade to the suffrage movement.

• Divide the class into five groups and have each assume the identity of one of the five components of the march:

1. Ida Wells-Barnett

2. Black members of the Black Alpha Suffrage Club

3. Illinois delegation

4. Southern delegation

5. NAWSA leadership

• Have students identify their rationale for the decision they made during the march by considering the following:

gender inclusion	racial xenophobia
political expediency	political coalition
group responsibility	individual rights
suffrage	enfranchisement
Jim Crowism/	justice
segregation	customs
responsibility	racism
empowerment	democracy
civil rights

• Debrief the rationales in a large group and evaluate each decision and its relationship to the expansion of democracy in the Progressive era.

Concluding the Lesson
• Re-create, as a U.S. history class activity, the NAWSA parade of 1913 with the dramatic portrayal of the Ida Wells-Barnett, Bell Squire, and Virginia Brooks roles as a culminating dramatic vignette.

• Drama students or professional actors might be used to speak on stage about their experiences and feelings about the incident.

• All participants in the parade are to dress and carry artifacts re-created to represent the era.

Extending the Lesson
• Organize a viewing of An American Experience: Ida Wells-Barnett Crusader for Justice, 1991. 60 min. U.S.A.; and Ida Wells-Barnett, directed by Rex Barnett, 1993. 27 min. U.S.A.

• Research news coverage of Ida Wells Barnett, the women's suffrage movement, and the 1913 NAWSA Parade.

• Listen to the audio-tape interview with the granddaughter of Ida Wells-Barnett, "Taking A Stand." Conduct a similar interview with a family member who has taken a stand on an issue.

• Research and compare the protest activism that led to the enfranchisement of African-Americans, women, and immigrants in America.

• Prepare a mass-media presentation or network news show that would introduce Wells-Barnett, the major events during her lifetime, and her work as a crusader for justice. Tape news shows for the school channel, local educational channel, or community access programming. Catalog the show in the school library.

Assessing the Lesson
• Focus on students' declarative knowledge about the life and work of Ida B. Wells-Barnett and their evaluation of her contributions as a political activist. Two types of assessment can be made. First, administer a test or quiz assessing the student's ability to connect Wells-Barnett with the historical eras in which she lived and her specific contributions to them. Second, develop rubrics for assessing the student's analysis, comparison, and evaluation of Well-Barnett's agenda and that of the women's suffrage movement. Finally, students can conduct peer assessment of any culminating performance that would focus on the performers' ability to accurately portray a historical figure, their perspective, and the authenticity of their artifacts, costumes, and props.

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Write an editorial promoting your position on a critical issue.

• Identify the issue

• Give arguments for your position.

• Give arguments against your position.

• Identify groups to form coalitions around this issue.

Write the editorial.

Re-create a moment in history using the 1913 photo of Ida Wells-Barnett, Bell Squire, and Virginia Brooks. Write a historical narrative explaining what forces and events brought these three women together at this moment in history.

36

Wells-Barnett was an avid writer and a crusader for justice. She was not afraid to take a stand.

Consider her participation in the NAWSA parade and the personal stand that she took. Predict what action she might have taken locally, statewide, and nationally in response to what happened.

Use one of the following as a vehicle for recording her response:

1. Her personal diary entries for the week following the parade

2. Public speeches she delivered to the Alpha Suffrage Club, the Illinois delegation, and to the leadership of NAWSA about the incident

3. Editorials written in local black newspapers the week following the parade

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