On this episode of Our American Stories, born into slavery in Mississippi during the Civil War, Ida B. Wells became one of the most fearless journalists and civil rights advocates in American history. She exposed the horrors of lynching, challenged segregation, fought for women's suffrage, and helped lay the groundwork for the NAACP. But another important part of her story has largely been forgotten.

After the lynching of close friends in Memphis, Wells argued that African Americans could not always rely on the law for protection and that self-defense was an essential civil right. Our regular contributor Ashley Hlebinsky shares the remarkable story of Wells' life, her fight against racial violence, and her belief that the right to keep and bear arms was inseparable from the struggle for freedom and equality.

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