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Civil Rights activist Ida B Wells
How a pioneering African-American journalist campaigned against lynching in the US
In March 2022 a law was passed in the United States making lynching a federal crime - nearly 120 years after the first attempts to introduce legislation. The pioneering African-American journalist Ida B Wells first campaigned for the change in the 1890s after realising the horror of lynching taking place across the country. Laura Jones has been speaking to her great-granddaughter Michelle Duster.
PHOTO: Ida B Wells in 1920 (Chicago History Museum/Getty Images)
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Wed 1 Jun 202202:50GMT
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