The light of truth : writings of an anti-lynching crusader / Ida B. Wells ; edited with an introduction and notes by Mia Bay ; general editor, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Includes bibliographical references.

"Iola, the princess of the press" : Wells's early writings -- To call a thing by its true name : Wells's crusade against lynching -- Ida B. Wells abroad -- The crusade continues -- Twentieth-Century journalism and letters.

"The broadest and most comprehensive collection of writings available by an early civil and women's rights pioneer . Seventy-one years before Rosa Parks's courageous act of resistance, police dragged a young Black journalist named Ida B. Wells off a train for refusing to give up her seat. The experience shaped Wells's career, and--when hate crimes touched her life personally--she mounted what was to become her life's work: an anti-lynching crusade that captured international attention. This volume covers the entire scope of Wells's remarkable career, collecting her early writings, articles exposing the horrors of lynching, essays from her travels abroad, and her later journalism. The Light of Truth is both an invaluable resource for study and a testament to Wells' long career as a civil rights activist"--