In March of 1892, three Black grocery store owners in Memphis, Tennessee, were murdered by a mob of white men.
1982年3月，田纳西州孟菲斯的三位杂货店黑人店主被一群白人暴民谋杀。
Lynchings like these were happening all over the American South,
像这样的私刑在美国南方各地都在发生，
often without any subsequent legal investigation or consequences for the murderers.
通常事后也不会有相关法律调查，凶手不用承受任何后果。
But this time, a young journalist and friend of the victims set out to expose the truth about these killings.
但这次，一位年轻记者，也是受害者的朋友，打算揭露这些杀戮的真相。
Her reports would shock the nation and launch her career as an investigative journalist, civic leader, and civil rights advocate.
她的报导震惊了全国，也让她开始了新的职业生涯，身为调查记者、公民领袖以及民权捍卫者。
Her name was Ida B. Wells.
她的名字叫做埃达·B·韦尔斯。
Ida Bell Wells was born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi on July 16, 1862,
埃达·韦尔斯生在密西西比州的霍利斯普林斯，出生就是奴隶，生于1862年7月16日，
several months before the Emancipation Proclamation released her and her family.
几个月之后，解放奴隶宣言就解放了她和她的家人。
After losing both parents and a brother to yellow fever at the age of 16,
十六岁时，因为黄热病，她失去了双亲和一位兄弟，
she supported her five remaining siblings by working as a schoolteacher in Memphis, Tennessee.
之后就由她来抚养剩下的五位手足，她在田纳西州孟菲斯担任学校老师。
During this time, she began working as a journalist.
在这段时间，她也开始当记者。
Writing under the pen name "Iola," by the early 1890s she gained a reputation as a clear voice against racial injustice
用艾欧拉的笔名写文章，19世纪90年代初期，因为明确发声对抗种族不公让她成名，
and become co-owner and editor of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight newspaper.
成为《孟菲斯自由言论与前照灯》的共同所有人及编辑。
She had no shortage of material: in the decades following the Civil War,
她完全不缺素材：在内战之后的数十年，
Southern whites attempted to reassert their power by committing crimes against Black people
南方白人尝试重申他们的权力，做法是对黑人做出犯罪行为，
including suppressing their votes, vandalizing their businesses, and even murdering them.
包括打压他们的投票，任意破坏他们的生意，甚至谋杀他们。
After the murder of her friends, Wells launched an investigation into lynching.
在她的朋友被谋杀之后，韦尔斯发动了对私刑的调查。
She analyzed specific cases through newspaper reports and police records,
她分析了报纸报导和警方记录中的特定案件，
and interviewed people who had lost friends and family to lynch mobs.
采访因为私刑暴民而失去朋友和家人的人。
She risked her life to get this information.
她冒着她的生命危险取得这些信息。
As a Black person investigating racially motivated murders,
她是黑人，且在调查因种族动机而行凶的凶手，
she enraged many of the same southern white men involved in lynchings. Her bravery paid off.
因此惹火了这些涉入私刑的南方白人。她的勇气带来了好结果。
Most whites had claimed and subsequently reported that lynchings were responses to criminal acts by Black people.
大部分的白人都声称，且后续也描述说私刑的原因是因为这些黑人有犯罪行为在先。
But that was not usually the case.
但通常实情都不是如此。
Through her research, Wells showed that these murders were actually a deliberate,
通过她的研究，韦尔斯证明了这些凶手其实都是深思熟虑的人，
brutal tactic to control or punish black people who competed with whites.
用残酷的战术来控制或惩罚和白人竞争的黑人。

Her friends, for example, had been lynched when their grocery store became popular enough to divert business from a white competitor.
比如，她的朋友，被私刑杀害的是因为他们的杂货店当时变得很热门，会影响到白人竞争者的生意。
Wells published her findings in 1892.
1982年，韦尔斯发表了她的发现。
In response, a white mob destroyed her newspaper presses.
回应她的是一群白人暴民摧毁了她的报纸出版社。
She was out of town when they struck, but they threatened to kill her if she ever returned to Memphis.
他们攻击时，她不在镇上，但他们威胁说如果她回到孟菲斯就要杀害她。
So she traveled to New York,
所以她到了纽约，
where that same year she re-published her research in a pamphlet titled Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.
同一年，她再次用一本小册子发表了她的研究，叫做：《南方恐怖：私刑法的各种面向》。
In 1895, after settling in Chicago, she built on Southern Horrors in a longer piece called The Red Record.
1895年，她在芝加哥定居，根据《南方恐怖》，她又写了一篇更长的文章，题目叫《红色记录》。
Her careful documentation of the horrors of lynching and impassioned public speeches drew international attention.
她详细记载了私刑的恐怖，再加上她充满激情的公开演说，吸引了国际的关注。
Wells used her newfound fame to amplify her message.
韦尔斯用她的新名气来扩大她的信息。
She traveled to Europe, where she rallied European outrage against racial violence in the American South
她旅行到欧洲，在那里，她团结了欧洲人对于美国南方种族暴力的怒火，
in hopes that the US government and public would follow their example.
希望美国政府和大众能够追随他们。
Back in the US, she didn't hesitate to confront powerful organizations, fighting the segregationist policies of the YMCA
回到美国，她毫不犹豫地面对强大的组织，对抗YMCA的种族隔离政策，
and leading a delegation to the White House to protest discriminatory workplace practices.
并领导一个代表团到白宫，去抗议在工作场所的歧视行为。
She did all this while disenfranchised herself.
在做这些的时候，她是没有公民权的。
Women didn't win the right to vote until Wells was in her late 50s.
到了韦尔斯快六十岁时，女性才赢得投票权。
And even then, the vote was primarily extended to white women only.
即使那时，有投票权的也主要是白人女性。
Wells was a key player in the battle for voting inclusion, starting a Black women's suffrage organization in Chicago.
在扩展投票权上，韦尔斯扮演了关键的角色，她在芝加哥创始了一个女性的投票权组织。
But in spite of her deep commitment to women's rights, she clashed with white leaders of the movement.
虽然她对女权投入许多心力，她和运动的白人领袖发生冲突。
During a march for women's suffrage in Washington D.C.,
在华盛顿特区的一次女性投票权游行中，
she ignored the organizers' attempt to placate Southern bigotry by placing Black women in the back,
主办人试图缓解南方的偏执，因而将黑人女性排在后方，她没有理会这项规则，
and marched up front alongside the white women.
在队伍前方和白人女性一起游行。
She also chafed with other civil rights leaders, who saw her as a dangerous radical.
她也和其他民权运动领袖有磨擦，他们认为她是危险的激进分子。
She insisted on airing, in full detail, the atrocities taking place in the South,
她坚持要转播南方残暴的所有细节，
while others thought doing so would be counterproductive to negotiations with white politicians.
其他人则认为这么做可能会有反效果，更难和白人政客谈判。
Although she participated in the founding of the NAACP, she was soon sidelined from the organization.
虽然她参与了美国全国有色人种协进会的成立，但很快她就被该组织排挤。
Wells' unwillingness to compromise any aspect of her vision of justice
韦尔斯不愿意将她的正义远景在任何面向上做妥协，
shined a light on the weak points of the various rights movements,
协助了许多民权运动的弱点，
and ultimately made them stronger -- but also made it difficult for her to find a place within them.
最终，让它们变得更强壮--但也让她更难在这些运动中找到容身之处。
She was ahead of her time,
她走在那个时代的最前面，
waging a tireless struggle for equality and justice decades before many had even begun to imagine it possible.
为平等和正义不懈地努力着，在许多人认为有可能这么做之前的数十年她就已经在做了。