Ida B. Wells

 

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                                                                                                                                                                       1. Ida B. Wells #5 Is the last of the second chapter of my Lynching Blues series. I read Crusade For Justice, a biography about this remarkable woman, who was an African American journalist and activist during an era when it seemed very rare to be such an entity in American society. She was very vocal in her protest to dismantle systemic racism and ending the brutalization of lynching. In this piece I drew a scene where she is speaking to other African American women, who are apart of her campaign against lynching and societal injustices against the black community.

2. Ida B. Wells #4 is another perspective of Ida speaking to the attentive group of women. Here I wanted to include the story of three black men, who had a grocery store across the street from a white one, and became competition for the white owned business. This brought about an increasing racial tension and resulted in deadly violence. Ida was well aware of the injustice, as she was friends with the black men. It was a different approach to the compositions I was used to drawing, as I chose to incorporate text to heighten the importance of Wells' journalism and activism during such tumultuous times.

3. Ida B. Wells #3 was another one of those pieces, when I experimented with heavy brushstrokes and ink to tell the story, and find out if I wanted to do without the ballpoint pen for future drawings. It was short lived, as I needed both to help execute my style. I wanted to show the moments in which Ida contemplated and wrote about the issues that concerned her. This also displays the power of choosing words to help bring about change in the world.

4. Ida B. Wells #2 is my favorite of the five I did regarding the journalist. Ida sits on a train, traveling, while reading the newspaper. The cover includes a headline about lynching, that concerned her and the black community that surrounded her. The restless boy looks to see what has her so engaged, while a man sleeps, with a women beside him enjoying the view. It was important to me, that I try to capture the invasive sunlight shining through the window, to create the rich contrast of black and white. It was an early attempt in trying to achieve this with my style.

5. Ida B. Wells #1 is the first drawing that began the second chapter of the series. It is about the three men who Ida tried to help gain justice, while being wrongly imprisoned.She visits them and shares a little hope in accomplishing their freedom. But unfortunately this did not happen. The men were eventually forced out and murdered in cold blood.