She Refused To Walk Behind

Alice Beasley

35.25 x 40 inches

2019

ARTIST STATEMENT

Ida B. Wells was already a national figure and a journalist famous for her courageous anti-lynching campaigns when she travelled to Washington, D.C., in 1913 to join the suffrage parade being organized by the leading suffrage association. Arriving with a delegation of members from Chicago, Wells was told by the head of the Illinois delegation that the national organization wanted “to keep the delegation entirely white.” All black delegates, including Wells, were to walk at the end of the parade, behind the men, in a separate “colored” section. Wells refused. Instead of going to the back with other African Americans, Wells waited with spectators as the parade was underway and stepped into the white Chicago delegation as they passed by.

Photo by Sibila Savage Photography