Mississippi Humanities Council

  • Interpreting Our History & Culture
  • Fostering Civil Conversations
  • Enriching Communities

Ida B. Wells: The Mother of the American Human Rights Movement

Ida B. Wells’s life has intriguing ties to Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, President William McKinley, Booker T. Washington, Duke of Argyll and Sir John Gorst. She was a journalist who wrote about human rights and had a clear understanding about her rights as a woman. This presentation highlights her fearless campaign to realize the most significant contribution to the investigation and avocation against human lynchings. Yet, she is unknown to most people of this generation.

Speakers Expertise:

Dr. Cassie Sade Turnipseed is an Assistant Professor of History in the Department of Social Sciences at Mississippi Valley State University. Dr. Turnipseed was named IHL's Mississippi Diversity Educator of the Year for the year 2017. Turnipseed was also the recipient of a Mississippi Valley State University 2018 summer research grant to study the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor formally. This research will formulate the first textbook and accompanying documentary entitled, The Gullah Geechie: Making a Way Out of No Way, for the benefit of high school and university students, teachers, and film festival viewers that offers academic insight into the world of the Gullah Geechee community built and their significant contributions to America's economy and physical culture. In addition, Turnipseed is spearheading the anthology entitled, Up from the Cotton Fields-Revisited, to chronicle the evolutionary growth of Mississippi Valley State University, since its founding.