| Credit: Alex Wong/Getty; Philip Dembinski
Just like her great-grandmother Ida B. Wells, Michelle Duster is using her voice to fight for racial and gender equity. The educator and public historian has written and contributed to multiple books, most recently an intimate biography about her iconic ancestor, Ida B. The Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells,
which published last month. Born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi in July 1862, Wells would become one of the leading civil rights activists of the era. In her book, Duster explains how the fight for racial justice and women s suffrage was forever changed by Wells, whom the FBI once described as one of the most dangerous negro agitators. Here, the author explores the connection between her great-grandmother an anti-lynching crusader, journalist, organizer and peer of the likes of