Ida B. Wells And The History of Black Women In Chicago; U of I 150 Keynote Speaker Amitav Ghosh
In this Dec. 2, 2011 photo, Michelle Duster, great-granddaughter of civil rights pioneer Ida B. Wells, holds a portrait of Wells in her home in Chicago's South Side. For six decades Wells was woven into the fabric of the South Side as the namesake of a public housing project that was home to thousands. Nearly a decade ago when the city razed the development and replaced it with new townhomes, Duster and her family worried the journalist, suffragist and anti-lynching crusader would be forgotten. Now, to mark the 150th anniversary of Wells' birth in 2012, an effort is under way to build a sculpture to honor her legacy at the site of the housing development. Charles Rex Arbogast/AP
On the 21st: Remembering the history and legacy of Ida B. Wells and many other influential and inspirational black women in Chicago. Also, a conversation about climate change with Amitav Ghosh, an award-winning novelist who will be delivering the keynote at the University of Illinois 150 Conference.