Iola’s Letter shares the story of the anti-lynching crusade Ida B. Wells launched in her Memphis newspaper, Free Speech, in 1892. The play reveals the conflicts Memphis faced surrounding race, religion, class, and economics that led to the launching of Wells’ activism that inspired a national movement.
The first staged reading of Iola’s Letter was produced in 1999 at Howard University under the direction of Vera J. Katz.
