Ida b. Wells
Ida B. Wells was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi in 1862. She was the oldest of seven children. Although he parents were enslaved prior to the Civil War, they were able to support their family because her mother was a well-known cook and her father was a skilled carpenter. When she was only fourteen, a tragic epidemic of yellow fever swept through Holly Springs and killed both of her parents and younger sibling. Rather than have her sisters and brothers split up, she took on the responsibility of raising them.