• Age: 11
• Grade: 6

Journalist, speaker, and early civil rights leader Ida B. Wells was one of the most outspoken and famous women in the United States. Her powerful speeches on the injustices of lynching in America meant she was subjected to threats on her own life. Her 1909 speech to the newly formed National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) addresses the social and political circumstances that led to lynching. Her fact-based analysis dispels contrary arguments in clear tones and sets out why this race-based crime was a stain on the nation.

Rebecca Sjonger is the author of twenty-five non-fiction books for children and young adults, including Life in the Far North and The Life Cylce of a Bat, as well as other "Resource Links of the Year" selections. She lives in Huntsville, Ontario.

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