T. Thomas Fortune, after meeting her, wrote as follows: "She has become famous as one of the few of our women who handle a goose-quill, with diamond point, as easily as any man in the newspaper work. If Iola were a man, she would be a humming independent in politics. She has plenty of nerve, and is as sharp as a steel trap."
She is now the regular correspondent of The Detroit Plaindealer, Christian Index, and The People's Choice. She is also part owner and editor of The Memphis Free Speech and Head Light, and editress of the "Home" department of Our Women and Children, of which Dr. William J, Simmons is publisher. Decidedly, "Iola" is a great success in journalism, and we can but feel proud of a woman whose ability and energy serves to make her so. She is popular with all the journalists of Afro-American connection, as will be seen by her election as assistant secretary of the National Afro-American Press Convention, at Louisville, two years ago, and her unanimous election as secretary of the recent Press Convention, which met at Washington, D. C, March 4, 1889. Miss Lucy W. Smith gives an account of the many papers to which "Iola" has contributed.
In summing up her character as a writer, we can but say "Amen" to what Miss Smith says of her: "Miss Ida B. Wells, "Iola," has been called the "Princess of the Press," and she has well earned the title. No writer, the male fraternity not excepted, has been more extensively quoted; none struck harder blows at the wrongs and weaknesses of the race.
"Miss Wells' readers are equally divided between the sexes. She reaches the men by dealing with the political aspect of the race question, and the women she meets around the fireside, She is an inspiration to the young writers, and her success has lent an impetus to their ambition. When the National Press Convention, of which she was assistant
