Ida B. Wells: A Chicago Stories Special Documentary
There are few Chicago historical figures whose life and work speak to the current moment more than Ida B. Wells, the 19th century investigative journalist, civil rights leader, and passionate suffragist. WTTW brings you a new CHICAGO STORIES special that tells her story as never before. Freed from slavery just six months after she was born, Ida B. Wells once described her childhood with her parents and siblings in Holly Springs, Mississippi as “happy.” But a tragedy would alter the course of Wells’ youth. As a young woman and teacher, she refused to give up her seat on a train car that she was told was reserved white women. That incident launched the young Wells into her first public fight for justice. Through writing, Ida B. Wells found her “real” self. As she put pen to paper, her words became an important tool to analyze, debate, and persuade readers on the issues of the day, particularly when it came to race and gender. But after the lynching of her close friend in Memphis, Wells found a new kind of power in her pen.
Related Videos
Reviving Detroit looks at how the city went from the richest in the U.S. to the most poverty stricken. Detroit?s population is at nearly a quarter of what it was at its peak, and despite a recent wave of gentrification, the city is still struggling with rampant crime, a failing school system and swaths of vacant land.
In the once-thriving city of Detroit, we start to dig underneath the decay of the automobile industry and discover a well rich in art and culture cultivating underneath. Just as the wheel is the symbol of Detroit's past the cyclic shape of it reminds us that life repeats itself and has potential for rebirth.
Life in Osborn is the story of hope for one of Detroit?s most-blighted neighborhoods. Chronicling the efforts of the Detroit-based non-profit Life Remodeled to make a sustainable difference in the northeast Detroit community that once was the most violent ZIP Code in the United States
Is There Hope For Detroit Public Schools? | NBC Nightly News
An incredibly well produced documentary of the famous Detroit department store chain from its beginning. It appears that it was produced as an internal training film but is rich with historic scenes of Detroit and interesting little known facts about the city.
