Britannica Student Encyclopedia - 2010

her parents died.Wells then looked after

the rest of her family. She taught school

to earn money.

Career

As a young woman,Wells moved to

Memphis, Tennessee. There she fought

racial segregation—the forced separation

of the races. In 1884 she refused to leave

a railroad car that was reserved for

whites. One of the railroad workers

dragged her from the car.Wells began

writing articles against segregation in

African American newspapers. She soon

became a part owner of a newspaper.

Wells started writing about lynching in

1892. White Southerners used lynching

as a weapon of terrorism against African

Americans. Mobs of whites would seize

and murder African Americans, often by

hanging. Police usually made no arrests.

Wells wrote and spoke in public about

lynchings so that people would know

Ida B. Wells-Barnett

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Wells-Barnett, Ida B. 29

 

what had really happened. She wanted

people to become angry and put a stop

to lynching.

Some whites dislikedWells’s antilynching

articles so much that they destroyed

her newspaper office.Wells eventually

moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she

married Ferdinand L. Barnett in 1895.

Later Life

Besides fighting lynching,Wells-Barnett

worked for women’s right to vote. She

also helped to found the National Association

for the Advancement of Colored

People.Wells-Barnett died in Chicago

on March 25, 1931.

#More to explore

African Americans • National

Association for the Advancement of

Colored People

Western Australia

Western Australia is Australia’s largest

state. It covers nearly one third of the

country. However, only about 10 percent

of Australia’s people live there. The

state capital is Perth, a city on the southwestern

coast.

Geography

Western Australia borders the Indian

Ocean on the south, west, and northwest.

The Timor Sea makes up its northern

coast. The Northern Territory and

the state of South Australia lie to the

east.Western Australia covers an area of

976,790 square miles (2,529,875 square

kilometers).

The Fitzroy and Ord rivers flow through

the northern part of the state. South of

the rivers is the Great Sandy Desert.

Other deserts, the Gibson and the Great

Victoria, cover the central part of the

state. Mountains rise in parts of the

west. Mount Meharry, in the northwest,

isWestern Australia’s highest point. It

rises 4,104 feet (1,251 meters) above sea

level.

Several different climate areas are found

inWestern Australia. The northern section

is warm throughout the year, with a

Formations of limestone thrust upward

through the sand of the Pinnacles Desert in

Western Australia.

30 Western Australia BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

wet and a dry season. The southwest has

cool, mild winters and warm, breezy

summers. Hot, dry winds blow from the

desert areas to the east.

People

Western Australia has a population of

nearly 2 million. Most people have British,

Irish, or other European ancestors.

A small number of people have Asian

roots. Australia’s native people, called

Aborigines, make up about 3 percent of

the population.

Most people live in the southwestern

quarter of the state. More than 1 million

people live in Perth. Albany, a much

smaller city on the southern coast, has

the state’s only good harbor. Other cities

include Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Bunbury,

and Geraldton.

Economy

ManyWestern Australians work in services

such as education, health care, and

retail (shops). A smaller number of

people work in manufacturing.Workers

produce steel, furniture, food products,

and other goods.

Mining is also important to the

economy.Western Australia is rich in

valuable minerals, including gold, diamonds,

nickel, iron, coal, tin, uranium,

and bauxite. The state also has major

deposits of oil and natural gas.

Western Australia has little freshwater

and poor soil, so growing crops is hard.

Farmers mainly produce grains, wool,

and mutton (sheep meat). They also

grow grapes for wine.

History

Aborigines have lived in what is now

Western Australia for at least 40,000

years. In 1616 the Dutch explorer Dirck

Hartog became the first European to

land on the coast. The British made the

first lasting settlement in 1826, at

Albany. The British made the land a

colony. They later sent thousands of

prisoners to work in the colony.

In the 1880s people discovered gold in

southernWestern Australia, and settlers

poured in.Western Australia became a

state of the new country of Australia in

1901.

#More to explore

Aboriginal Peoples • Australia • Great

Victoria Desert

West Indies

The West Indies is a group of islands

that stretches from near the U.S. state

of Florida to the northern coast of

South America. The islands separate the

Caribbean Sea from the rest of the

Atlantic Ocean. People also call this

area the Caribbean.

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA West Indies 31

 

Greater Antilles

A group of large islands in the northwestern

Caribbean is known as the

Greater Antilles. The Greater Antilles

include Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and

Hispaniola. Two countries share the

island of Hispaniola: Haiti and the

Dominican Republic.

Lesser Antilles

The Lesser Antilles are smaller islands

that lie southeast of the Greater Antilles.