Ida B. Wells was an African-American journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, sociologist, and an early leader in the civil rights movement. She documented lynching in the United States, showing that it was often used as a way to control or punish blacks who competed with whites rather than as a punishment for crimes. She was also active in the women's rights and the women's suffrage movements. Her activism was instrumental in changing the way that African Americans were treated in the United States.