Our Story: Portraits of Change is an interactive photo mosaic and art installation depicting a portrait of suffragist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells. Created by artist Helen Marshall of the People’s Picture, commissioned by the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission, and produced by Christina Korp, Purpose Entertainment, Our Story commemorates the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment and women’s right to vote in the United States. From August 24-29, a 25 ft by 40 ft (1,000 square feet) installation of the photo mosaic was on display at Union Station in Washington, DC.

The final portrait is made up of thousands of photos telling myriad stories of the suffrage movement. In the online mosaic, you can zoom in, click on the featured portraits and stories, and find out more about the many programs and events happening nationwide to commemorate the suffrage centennial in 2020.

Suffragists began their organized fight for women’s equality in 1848 when they demanded the right to vote during the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. For the next 72 years, women leaders lobbied, marched, picketed, and protested for the right to the ballot. The U.S. Congress finally passed the 19th Amendment on June 4, 1919, and it then went to the states for ratification. Thirty-six states needed to ratify the amendment for it to become law. After another year of organizing and lobbying by suffragists, Tennessee became the 36th state to approve the amendment on August 18, 1920. A week later, on August 26, the amendment was officially signed into the U.S. Constitution. Today, more than 68 million women vote in elections because of the courageous suffragists who never gave up the fight for equality. With the physical and virtual mosaic, we honor their dedicated efforts to expand American democracy.

The Our Story mosaic depicts a portrait of suffragist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells. Wells was one activist in a movement of many, represented by the thousands of historic photographs of suffragists within the mosaic. Wells was a leader in the suffrage movement who fought to ensure Black women would not be left behind in the campaign for women’s rights. Her leadership, courage, and determination in the face of formidable obstacles represent the spirit of the American women’s suffrage movement.

Ida Bell Wells was born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi on July 16, 1862 during the Civil War. Once the war ended, Wells’ parents became active in Reconstruction Era politics, and instilled in their daughter the importance of education and political engagement. Wells started her career as a teacher, and became a prominent journalist, activist, and suffragist. As a journalist, her exposés of the horrors of lynching helped spark a national anti-lynching crusade. Among her many other accomplishments and endeavors, Wells founded the Alpha Suffrage Club in 1913, the first African American women’s suffrage organization in Chicago. During the March 3, 1913 Suffrage Parade in Washington, DC, Wells famously protested racial segregation in the parade by refusing to march in the back of the procession, instead taking her rightful place with the rest of the delegation of Illinois suffragists. Throughout her life, Wells dedicated herself to the causes of equality, voting rights, and racial justice.

In September 1883, Ida B Wells was sat in the rear car of the train on her way to Woodstock, Tennessee where she taught public school. When the conductor came to collect her ticket, he told her she must move to the front of the train as the rear carriage was reserved for whites only. “I replied that I would not ride in the forward car, that I had a seat and intended to keep it,” she wrote in her lawsuit against the Chesapeake, Ohio and Southwestern Railroad. The conductor told Wells he’d treat her like a lady, but staying in the rear car was not an option.

In 2018, The People’s Picture created the ‘Face of Suffrage’ artwork. The floor-based, 200 metre-square photo mosaic was made up of more than 3,700 images of females from across the United Kingdom. When viewed from above, it showed Hilda Burkitt, a leading face from the suffrage movement in the West Midlands, UK. The image was made up of a combination of historical pictures of women involved in the suffragette movement from the West Midlands in the early 1900s and of females today using photographs submitted by the public be part of the commemoration.

Evaline Hilda Burkitt was the first British suffragette to be forcibly fed – a total of 292 times. She had a job at the Birmingham (Women’s Social and Political Union Headquarters), near New Street station, and threw a stone at Prime Minister Asquith’s train as it pulled away, soon after he attended a male-only budget meeting. She was then imprisoned at Winson Green prison. 

Ida B. Wells visited Birmingham in 1893, speaking twice to the Young Men’s Christian Assembly Rooms. She stayed at number 66 in Gough Road – the site where Edgbaston Community Centre now stands. A memorial plaque was unveiled in 2019 at the community centre by the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, and Ida’s great grandson, Dan Duster, appeared via video link from America.

With both women having such strong connections to the railway industry, we are proud to have shown both artworks in prominent locations either side of the Atlantic to further tell their story and share with others their determination and courage to gain women the right to vote.