Ida B. Wells-Barnett gets a new plaza for her 164th birthday

Ida B. Wells-Barnett got a new plaza for her 164th birthday — one designed to make her impossible to overlook. At the eastern end of Beale Street, city leaders cut the ribbon on a redesigned Ida B. Wells Plaza, where the investigative journalist and anti-lynching crusader’s bronze statue now stands higher and more visible, surrounded by new paving, landscaping, lighting and displays that help tell her story.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett gets a new plaza for her 164th birthday

Ida B. Wells-Barnett got a new plaza for her 164th birthday — one designed to make her impossible to overlook.

At the eastern end of Beale Street, city leaders cut the ribbon on a redesigned Ida B. Wells Plaza, where the investigative journalist and anti-lynching crusader’s bronze statue now stands higher and more visible, surrounded by new paving, landscaping, lighting and displays that help tell her story.