and burst on the public scene with her 1883 court challenge to racial segregation on trains. Spurred by a post-Reconstruction increase in violence against blacks, Wells had already begun to submit editorials for publication in black newspapers when a close friend was lynched in 1889. She then transformed her outrage into a fierce determination to articulate the oppression of African Americans and became a speaker much in demand at black churches, journalists' conferences and feminist gatherings in the U.S. and England. Feminists such as Susan B. Anthony urged Wells not to marry and to concentrate instead on "real" work. She ignored their advice, but neither marriage nor motherhood slowed her down as she continued to campaign for federal legislation against lynching until her death in 1931. Unfortunately, McMurray offers little to a reader that isn't available?in better prose?in Wells's autobiography, Crusade for Justice. Additionally, McMurray muddles her portrait by judging the past by the standards of the present and by succumbing to the temptation to psychoanalyze Wells. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. This book is interesting and easy to read, but hard to take. Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a complex person: incredibly smart, brave and strong, but at the same time, prickly and ultra sensative.The book also puts America's current racial and gender problems into perspective, showing us that we haven't come very far from the late 19th century's attitudes toward and treatment of African-Americans