Monument to activist, journalist Ida B. Wells unveiled in Chicago

A monument honoring Ida B. Wells-Barnett was unveiled Wednesday in Chicago’s South Side that was home to the famed journalist and activist.

The Light of Truth Ida B. Wells National Monument, created by sculptor Richard Hunt, pays tribute to the journalist who reported on the lynching of African Americans across the South in the late 19th century, The Associated Press reported.

Investigate journalist and “1619 Project” author Nikole Hannah-Jones, who was recently granted tenure by the University of North Carolina, attended Wednesday’s ceremony.

Such a great day as we unveiled the Ida B Wells monument in Chicago. This Black woman journalist told the truth no matter how much power lined up against her, so, it is cosmically fitting that this happened on THIS day. pic.twitter.com/BjxkROA9Rn

— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) June 30, 2021

Wells, who died in 1931 at the age of 68, was honored with a Pulitzer Prize in 2020 for her reporting on the lynching of Black Americans in the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight, a newspaper she co-owned.

Wells also helped establish civil rights organizations like the NAACP and the National Association of Colored Women.