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In Episode 4 of Season one of HBO's The Gilded Age, we get a deeper look into the ambitious
young writer Peggy Scott's character played by Denée Benton.
In this episode, Peggy finds the vehicle for her voice by writing for local Black newspaper,
The New York Globe as well as learning how to use her voice for political cause.
As with so many of the the characters in the show, you might be wondering if Petty Scott
was a real hisorical figure so I did the research and here is what I found out so far.
First off, Peggy is not based on one particular historical figure.
The show writer, Julian Fellowes has a penchant for combining historical figures and the Los
Angeles times reports that Peggy Scott is a inspired by "a number of real Black female
trailblazers of the era."
The LA Times article identifies three individuals who lend themselves to the fictional Peggy
Scott including the writer and activist Ida B Wells along with novelist Julia Collins,
who is often cited as the first published Black American woman and Susan McKinney Steward,the
first Black female doctor in New York.
In this video, I will focus on the life of Ida B Wells as I feel she is the most representative
of what we have seen of the character of Peggy Scott so far in the series.
Please let me know in the comments below whether you agree or not with my conclusion that Ida
B Wells is the The Real Peggy Scott.
In this video, I will explore the life of Ida B Wells as I feel she is the most representative
of what we have seen of the character of Peggy Scott so far in the series.
Please let me know in the comments below whether you agree with my conclusion that Ida B Wells
is the The Real Peggy Scott.
Ida Bell Wells was an early leader in the civil rights movement and an American investigative
journalist.
She was one of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's founders.
Ida B Wells undoubtedly became America's most recognized Black woman during the course of
her lifetime committed to battling racism and brutality as well as the fight for African-American
equality and women's rights.
Ida was born into slavery during the Civil War in Holly Springs Mississippi on July 16th,
1862, and was freed shortly thereafter by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.
She was educated while enrolled in the historically Black liberal arts college, Rust College in
Holly Springs.
But tragedy struck and when Ida was only 16 years old, both of her parents and an infant
brother died of yellow fever.
Ida suddenly found herself the head of her family.
To keep her younger siblings together as a family, she found work as a teacher in a Black
elementary school in the country near Holly Springs.
She also maintained her education, taught Sunday school, and cooked, washed, and ironed
for the family.
Three years later, Ida and her two younger sisters relocated fifty miles south to Memphis
Tennessee to live with their aunt and where Ida continued to teach.
At age 21, despite her having bought a first class ticket, Ida clashed with a white train
conductor who ordered her to move from the ladies’ car to the a section designated
for black passengers.
In true fighting spirit, Ida fastened her teeth on the back of his hand in refusal when
the conductor tried to forcibly move her.
Ida sued after being ejected from the train and won the case though the decision was later
reversed in court.
You could say that this was the beginning of her political life.
By the time Ida reached 25, she was the co-owner and editor of a local black newspaper called
the Free Speech and Headlight.
Here she began writing about racial inequality.
Then came the People’s Grocery Lynching on March 9th 1892 in Memphis.
She denounced the white mob's actions in print which began her untired travelling and reporting
to uncover incidents of racial segregation and inequality across the country.
In the 1890's, Ida published her documented reports on lynchings in articles and through
her pamphlet entitled, Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in all its Phases.
Ida visited places where people had been hanged, shot, beaten, burned alive, drowned or mutilated.
She examined photos of victims hanging from trees as mobs looked on, pored over local
newspaper accounts, took sworn statements from eyewitnesses and on occasion, even hired
private investigators.
Ida B Wells exposed lynching as a barbaric practice of whites in the South used to intimidate
and oppress African Americans who created economic and political competition and a subsequent
threat of loss of power for whites.
For her efforts, a white mob destroyed her newspaper office and presses as her investigative
reporting was carried nationally in Black-owned newspapers.
Subjected to continued threats, Ida left Memphis for Chicago where she married Ferdinand Barnett
in 1895.
Even as she had a family Ida continued her work by writing, speaking, and organizing
for civil rights.
The same year she was married Ida managed to publish The Red Record, a 100-page pamphlet
with more detail, describing the abhorrent number of lynchings that had been occurring
in the United States since the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.
She also took up literary arms in the women's movement in the early 20th century.
Her role in the U.S. suffrage movement was inextricably linked to her lifelong crusade
against racism, violence and discrimination towards African Americans.
Like all suffragists she believed in women's right to vote but she also saw the basic right
of voting as a way for Black women to become politically involved in their communities
and to use their votes to elect African Americans, regardless of gender, to influential political
office.
As an activist, Ida established several notable women's organizations and traveled nationally
and internationally on lecture tours.
Ida was outspoken regarding her beliefs as a Black female activist and faced regular
public disapproval, sometimes including from other leaders within the civil rights movement
and the women's suffrage movement.
Skip ahead to World War I where the U.S. government placed Ida under surveillance, labeling her
a dangerous "race agitator".
Nothing could ever stop this fierce and feisty woman.
She defied the governmental threat and continued her ativism and political writings till her
death from kidney failure in Chicago at the age of 68 on March 25th 1931.
She is buried in Oak Woods Cemetery on Chicago's South Side.