WEBVTT

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- Her goal was to shame the South

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by exposing the truth
of what was going on.

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She made history

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and I'm making sure that
people don't forget it.

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(upbeat jazz music)

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My name is Michelle Duster,
author of "Ida B. the Queen"

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who actually happens to
be my great-grandmother.

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My book is an introduction to the life

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and legacy of Ida B. Wells

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that connects her work to modern
day leaders and movements.

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Ida B. Wells was born into slavery in 1862

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in Holly Springs, Mississippi.

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And she started her career as a teacher,

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segued into journalism.

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She had three friends who were lynched,

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so she decided to start
investigating other lynchings

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to see how many other innocent
people were being killed

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under the guise of protecting white women.

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As a result her life was threatened.

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Her printing press was destroyed.

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She was exiled from the South,

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but she expanded her career.

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She went on to co-own newspapers.

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She was the founder of
several organizations

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including the NAACP.

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In 1920 the 19th amendment was passed

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giving technically
women the right to vote.

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She had worked in the suffrage movement.

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Most of the Southern States black women

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still faced a lot of barriers

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to actually being able to
take advantage of that right.

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And 10 years after, my
great-grandmother ran

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for state Senate in 1930.

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To me, that just shows that
she was incredibly optimistic

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and pushing the envelope
as far as black people

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and black women being involved
and engaged in citizenship.

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There are numerous people in
the book that I highlighted

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that were Ida B. Wells' contemporaries:

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Mary Church Terrell, Mary McLeod Bethune,

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Frederick Douglass was one of her mentors.

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And then when it comes to
more modern and current people

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you have some of the politicians
including Kamala Harris,

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who is continuing some of the work

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that my great-grandmother was doing.

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One of the things that

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propelled me to write "Ida B. the Queen"

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is the fact that there was a
housing community in Chicago

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named after her, which was very
prominent for over 60 years

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and there was a decision
to tear it down in 2002.

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I kind of feared that her name would start

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to fade from public memory.

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Without advocacy, a lot of the stories

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of my great-grandmother,
her contemporaries,

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people who came before and
after her would be lost.

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And I am determined to make sure that

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that doesn't happen anymore.

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Our country is still going
through enough transition,

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enough of a struggle when
it comes to race relations

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and gender equality to make, I feel,

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that the work that my great-grandmother

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was doing is unfinished.

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When I look at the mass incarceration

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that we have in this country right now,

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to me that's an extension
of the convict lease system

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that she was writing about

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and was prevalent during her time.

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In 1910 African-American migrant men

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were not welcome at the YMCA.

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She founded The Negro Fellowship League

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to provide housing and a
job placement for these men.

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We still, today in 2021,

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are dealing with racial inequality

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when it comes to opportunities
for home ownership.

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I think she wanted to make
sure that people remembered

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what this country had
actually been through,

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what African-Americans
had actually lived through

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in order to have perspective
of the struggles,

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but also to not forget that
this is what our country was.

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I hope that what people
get out of the book

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is that their voice matters

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and they, as one person,
can make a difference.

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Ida did it in multiple different ways

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and hopefully when people
are reading the book

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they can learn and feel like

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they can see some of themselves in her.