Feb. 9, 2026

Ida B Wells— The Woman Who Documented Terror

Courage is easy to praise once it’s safe. We rewind to the moment Ida B. Wells made it dangerous—when a teacher-turned-writer chose evidence over comfort and forced a country to look at what it preferred to hide. From a first-class train car to the ashes of her newspaper office, we trace how humiliation as policy sparked a lifetime of investigation that documented lynching with names, dates, locations, and motives, and exposed it as a tool to crush Black economic power.

We walk through the Memphis murders of Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Henry Stewart, and how their success became the pretext for terror. Then we follow Wells beyond Memphis, where statistics met story and made denial harder at home and abroad. Along the way, we confront the fault lines inside the suffrage movement, where she refused to march at the back and insisted that a right divided by race is no right at all. Her methods—verification, pattern-tracking, naming systems of harm—form the backbone of ethical investigative journalism and a model for anyone committed to truth under pressure.

This is a focused, urgent portrait of a blueprint in action: how to gather facts that outlive fear, how to speak plainly when euphemism protects power, and how to keep the record so the record keeps us honest. We share how Ida B. Wells shapes our work today and why precision, empathy, and accountability still matter when stories get hard. If her courage stirs something in you, help us carry it forward: subscribe, share this episode with a friend, and leave a review with the one lesson you’ll hold onto.

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Chapters

00:04 - Welcome And Safety Message

00:26 - Black History Month Fact Setup

01:12 - Early Life And Loss

02:04 - The Train Ejection And Resolve

02:22 - Memphis Lynchings And Investigation

03:11 - Global Advocacy And Data

03:36 - Legacy, Gratitude, And Closing

Transcript

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Welcome to True Crime, authors and extraordinary people.

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The podcast where we bring two passions together.

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The show that gives new meaning to the old adage, truth is stranger than fiction.

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And reminding you that there is an extraordinary person in all of us.

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Here is your host, David McClam.

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What's going on, everybody?

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Welcome to the episode of True Crime Authors and Extraordinary People, Black History Month Fact Edition.

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Of course, I'm your man, David McClam.

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If you guys haven't already, make sure you follow us on all of our social media.

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There is nothing worth your life.

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Alright, so today we're gonna come with a good fact for you.

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This one is called Ida B.

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Wells, the woman who documented terror.

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Ida B.

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Wells was born into slavery in 1862, just months before the Emancipation Proclamation.

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Freedom was not a clean break for her.

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It was something she had to navigate in a country that resented his own promises.

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By the time she was a teenager, both of her parents had died of yellow fever, and Ida became the sole provider for her siblings.

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Survival came first, truth came soon after.

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She became a teacher because it was one of the few professions available to educated black women, but teaching was never her end game.

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Writing was, investigation was, Ida Wells had an instinct for patterns and intolerance for lies, especially the ones America told itself to justify violence.

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In 1884, she was forcibly removed from a first-class railroad car despite holding a valid ticket.

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She sued and initially won.

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The ruling was later overturned, but something in her hardened that day.

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She understood that humiliation was policy, not accident.

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The turning point came in 1892 when three black men, Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Henry Stewart, were lynched in Memphis.

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They were successful businessmen who owned a grocery store that competed with a white owned shop nearby.

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Their success was perceived as a threat.

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That was all it took.

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Ida knew them personally.

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One of them was the godfather of her child.

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She investigated their murders and published what no one else would, that lynching was not about justice or protecting white womanhood.

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It was about control.

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It was about eliminating black economic success.

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It was terrorism.

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White mobs burned her newspaper office to the ground.

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She received death threats.

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She was forced into exile and she did not stop.

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Ida Wells traveled the country and then the world, documenting lynchings with names, dates, locations, and methods.

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She used statistics when America preferred myth.

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She named perpetrators when the system protected anonymity.

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She dismantled the lie that these killings were spontaneous or rare.

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She embarrassed the United States on the global stage.

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Even within the suffrage movement, she faced racism.

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White suffragists asked her to march at the back during parades.

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She refused.

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She understood that liberation divided by race was not liberation at all.

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Ida B.

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Wells never softened her language to make others comfortable.

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She believed discomfort was necessary.

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She believed silence was complicity.

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Today, when we talk about investigative journalism, about naming systems of violence, about refusing to let victims be reduced to rumors, Ida Wells is to blueprint.

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She didn't just tell stories, she created records that made denial impossible.

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I can tell you now when it comes to investigative journalism, Ida B.

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Wells is the top of her game, and a lot of investigative journalists who are ethical do take some things from Ida B.

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Wells.

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I am one of them.

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Every time I tell a story, I can feel her presence.

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And I hope that every journalist that reports the news has the integrity of Ida B.

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Wells.

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Alright, guys, thank you for joining me for this one.

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Hope you enjoyed this fact.

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I know you have many choices in true crime and interview podcasts, and I am grateful that I am one of your choices.

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You have been listening to the only three-faceted podcast of its kind.

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Be good to yourself and each other.

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And always remember, always stay humbled.

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An act of kindness can make someone's day.

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A little love and compassion can go a long way.

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And remember that there is an extraordinary person in all of us.

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I'll catch you guys on the next one.

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Don't forget to rate, comment, and subscribe.

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Join us on social media.

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Feel free to drop us a line at TrueCrime and Authors at gmail.com.

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Sound mixing and editing by David McClellan.

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Intro script by Sophie Wilde and David McLam.

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Theme Music Legendary by New Alchemist.

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Introduction and Ending Credits by Jackie Voice.

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See you next time on True Crime Authors and Extraordinary People.