This week, AWM President Carey Cranston sits down with author and historian Michelle Duster who discusses the indelible impact and lasting legacy of her great-grandmother, Ida B. Wells.
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EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
“[Wells] felt the need to write her own autobiography because she was concerned that the work that she did would sort of be marginalized. So I really appreciate the fact that she decided to take control over her own story and her own narrative and chronicle it herself.”
“Until we have a situation where there is truth and reality is represented in a way that is representative of the whole story of African-Americans, then we’re going to continue having these problems that we have in our country.”
“For the writing that [Wells] did to be relevant today, in a way shows how things haven’t changed as much as we would hope. But it also ties the past to the present and I think that’s important for people to understand, that what is going on today is a continuum of what was going on post-Civil War.”
“We are all descendants of the people who lived before us, so we are all affected by what happened before us.”
“A lot of times people look at these historic figures as these larger-than-life figures, and they are to some degree, but they’re also human. And they have vulnerabilities. And I think it’s important for people to be able to see the human side of them.”