Ida B. Wells Abroad
Ida From Abroad
In February of 1894, Ida B. Wells made her second trip to England for a speaking tour. She hoped to attract British support for her anti-lynching cause. Her ally Florence Balgarnie, a British temperance activist, had invited her to speak to the British Women's Temperance Association (BWTA) in early May. The BWTA's president, Lady Henry Somerset, was a close friend of Frances Willard. In fact, Willard had been staying with her at her home in Surrey.Before departing, Wells had agreed to write a series of columns for a Chicago newspaper called the Inter-Ocean. In these pieces, she often mentioned Willard by name. Wells explained that in her lectures, audience members often asked her about what well-known reformers like Willard were doing to end lynching.
In her column of March 24, she wrote:
To prove her case about Willard, Wells had found a copy of the Voice interview from 1890. She arranged to have it reprinted in an anti-racist British newspaper called Fraternity.I find wherever I go that we are deprived the expression of condemnation such hangings and burnings deserve, because the world believes negro men are despoilers of the virtue of white women. ... Unfortunately for the negro race and for themselves, Miss Frances E. Willard and Bishops Fitzgerald and Haygood have published utterances in condemnation of this slander.
In her column of May 6, 1894, however, Wells's tone about Willard changed.
However, the issue of Fraternity with Willard's interview and accompanying critique from Wells had already been sent to the printers.
