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Laura S. Washington
Laura S. Washington
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Distinguished Chicago journalist Laura S. Washington joined the faculty of DePaul University in September of 2003 as its Ida B. Wells-Barnett University Professor and as a Fellow of the Humanities Center.
An award-winning editor and columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, Washington brings to the post more than two decades of diverse experience in print and broadcast journalism, urban affairs and social justice issues. She teaches courses in the communication department and in the African and Black Diaspora Studies programs of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LA&S). She also acts as a consultant, writer and lecturer on a variety of topics including media ethics, social advocacy, politics, race, poverty and urban affairs.
The Ida B. Wells-Barnett University Professorship was established in 1999 as the first in a series of distinguished university positions to engage the public in issues that will foster a more just, humane urban society. Wells-Barnett was selected as the professorship's namesake to recognize the significance of her voice on behalf of African Americans.
Ida B. Wells-Barnett
Ida B. Wells-Barnett
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An influential journalist and ardent advocate of African-Americans' civil rights, women's rights, and economic rights, Ida B. Wells-Barnett was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, in 1862. She began her formal career in journalism in 1889, writing and editing for the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight. In 1892, in response to the lynching in Memphis of three black businessmen, Wells-Barnett produced a series of editorials decrying the inherent injustice of lynching. As a result, threats were made against her life and the newspaper's offices were destroyed by a white mob. Wells-Barnett continued her campaign against lynching in New York, throughout England and Scotland, and finally in Chicago, where she settled in 1893. The same year, Wells-Barnett organized the first black women's club in Chicago, and in 1913 formed the Alpha Suffrage Club, the first black female suffrage group in Illinois. Wells-Barnett died in Chicago on March 25, 1931, leaving behind an uncompromising legacy of social activism. Two of her grandsons are DePaul graduates: Benjamin C. Duster, who received a DePaul law degree in 1954, and Donald L. Duster, who earned an MBA in 1977.
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