Ida B. Wells was a suffragist, civil rights activist and pioneering journalist who chronicled the lynching of Black Americans in her reporting. Michelle Duster, author of “Ida B. the Queen,” discusses her great-grandmother as we kick off our Black History Month series about the role Black women have played in the country’s development.
Highlights
Michelle Duster
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Michelle Duster is an author, professor, public historian, and champion of racial and gender equity. She has written, edited, or contributed to sixteen books. Her most recent Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells was released on January 26, 2021 by Atria/One Signal Publishers (division of Simon & Schuster). She co-wrote the popular children’s history book, Tate and His Historic Dream; co-edited Impact: Personal Portraits of Activism; Shifts: An Anthology of Women’s Growth Through Change; Michelle Obama’s Impact on African American Women and Girls; and edited two books that include the writings of her paternal great-grandmother, Ida B. Wells. She has written articles for Ms. Magazine, TIME, Essence, HuffPost, Teen Vogue, People, Glamour, Daily Beast, and the North Star. She has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, WTTW, CBS & CW as well as numerous radio shows. Her advocacy has led to street names, monuments, historical markers, murals, statues, and other public history projects that highlight women and African Americans, including Wells. She has written two children’s picture books. Ida B. Wells, Voice of Truth will be published in January 2022. You Dared will be published by mid-2023 (Henry Holt: division of Macmillan)