Memphis, Tennessee, to rename street in Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s honor

White mobs as soon as sacked Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s newspaper after she dared to print the reality about lynchings, forcing her out of Memphis. Now, she has a Memphis avenue named after her. 

The Memphis Metropolis Council voted Tuesday to rename Fourth Road between E.H. Crump Boulevard and Union Avenue as Ida B. Wells-Barnett Road. The stretch of highway goes previous her newly erected bronze statue and First Baptist Church, which was the positioning of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight, Wells’ newspaper. That statue stands on the fringe of Robert R. Church Park, a park named for The South’s first Black millionaire. 

The renaming is the primary of what may turn out to be a slew of renamed Memphis landmarks. In 2020, amid a nationwide dialogue of systemic racism, town council created a renaming fee to review Memphis landmarks. That committee accomplished its work late final yr.