National Geographic - USA (2020-08)

Michelle
DUSTER
Great-granddaughter
of Ida B. Wells and a
writer, speaker, educator,
and activist

and demoralized.”

As a result, Duster’s

grandmother turned

away from activism,

but Duster, the author

of two books on Wells,

eventually found her

way to it. She was a

As the youngest

child of suffragist

Ida B. Wells, Duster’s

grandmother watched

Wells “just fighting,

fighting, fighting all

the time,” Duster says,

and feeling “dejected

leading member in

the campaign to raise

money for a monument

to Wells in her adopted

hometown of Chicago

and worked to get a

major downtown street

named after her.

THE FIGHT TO BE HEARD 103