Yet, Ida and her family weren’t set free until after the Civil War, since they lived in Mississippi. When Ida was 16, her parents died due to Yellow Fever. Eventually, Ida decided to work as a teacher to be able to care for her brothers and sisters. She then moved to Memphis, where she was able to make more money. However, the school board refused to renew her teaching contract. It was then that she chose to start writing articles. Eventually, she found a career in Memphis Free Speech (a press company) where she was able to write articles about racial problems. Also, she attended Shaw University and Fisk University. She married Ferdinand Barnett in 1898 and had four children. During this time, she was discriminated against. For example, she was forced to leave a white-only train section, and the Memphis Free Speech company building was burned. As a result, she started working for the New York Age (a New York newspaper) as she was in New York at that time. Also, her friends were lynched, which further motivated her to bring awareness to lynching. She believed the lynching was cruel, unjustified, and a Miguel