Ida B. Wells is a hero among journalists. The publisher of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight newspaper documented lynchings throughout the South, beginning in the 1890s. She was an outspoken suffragette who eventually ran for Senate in Illinois, where she relocated after fleeing violent white supremacist mobs in Memphis who had destroyed her newspaper offices.
A new documentary by University of Memphis’ Daphne B. McFerren and Nathanial Ball, and Spotlight Productions’ Fabian Matthews argues that Wells’ formative experiences in Memphis served as a catalyst for what would become the Civil Rights Movement. Facing Down Storms: Memphis and the Making of Ida B. Wells pulls no punches when it comes to showing the horrors of white supremacist violence in the Jim Crow South — much like Wells herself.
Exquisitely researched, as you would expect from McFerren and Ball, who are, respectively, the executive director and assistant director of media for the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change, the film adds rich detail to the story of the woman who was “smart as a steel trap, and had no sympathy for humbug.”
Facing Down Storms will screen at Malco’s Studio on the Square on subsequent Thursdays, July 21st and 28th, at 7 p.m. You can buy advance tickets here.
