A young writer smiling at a laptop over coffee, carrying Ida B. Wells' pen forward
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The Citizen Journalist Campaign

Bylines for Justice.

Ida B. Wells was a journalist first. Bylines for Justice puts her methods, verify, document, publish, into the hands of the people telling the truth today: students, citizen writers, and local reporters carrying her pen forward.

Rise With Wells · #WriteTheWrongs
Enter the Contest

Before she was a movement, Ida B. Wells was a reporter with a notebook and a refusal to look away. She verified what others accepted, documented what others buried, and published what others feared to print. Bylines for Justice is how that work continues, not as admiration for her, but apprenticeship to her method.

It runs as a national reporting contest, a network of campus and newsroom workshops, and a living record of the truths being told right now. Whether you are a student writer, a neighbor with a story no one is covering, or a working reporter on a beat where things still get buried, there is a lane for you.

If Ida B. Wells were alive today, what story would she be chasing? The Bylines for Justice prompt

Find your lane

Who It's For

One prompt. Three ways in.

The question is the same for everyone. Where you take it, and what you win, depends on the pen you carry.

Student journalists in a campus newsroom
Students & Campus Writers

You're already asking the questions.

HBCU newsrooms, journalism schools, student papers. Enter the contest, get paired with a mentor, and bring Bylines to your campus. She was young when she started, too.

What you getMentorship from working journalists and publication on The Record.
An independent writer documenting a community story
Independent & Citizen Writers

No byline required.

You don't need a newsroom or a press pass, just a story your community is living and the will to report it plainly. That is exactly how she started.

What you getA first published credit and a national audience for your reporting.
A local reporter working a beat
Local & Professional Reporters

Working a beat where stories still get buried?

You already do the work. Bring an investigation into the light with the full weight of the movement behind it, and connect your reporting to a national audience.

What you getFeatured publication, film-rollout consideration, and a place in the Modern Red Record hub.

What's at stake

★

Published & Mentored

Selected writers receive editorial support, mentorship from working journalists, and publication of their work on The Record.

★

Featured in the Rollout

Standout entries are considered for the movement's rollout, social, press, and the Modern Red Record hub, putting new truth-tellers in front of a national audience.

★

The Big Screen

The goal for the top honor: one winning short film screening before WELLS when the film reaches theaters, and recognition in the film's rollout.

WELLS is a film in development by Wild Mercy Pictures. Featured placements, screenings, and recognition are planned as part of the film's rollout and are subject to its production and release. Contest rules and eligibility will be published when entries open.

Workshops in every city she reaches

In partnership with journalism schools and NAACP youth councils, we run Bylines for Justice workshops in cities where the film screens, teaching the basics of investigative journalism drawn straight from Wells' methods: how to verify a claim, document a pattern, and publish it where it cannot be denied. Bring the workshop to your campus, newsroom, or chapter through our Students & Educators program.

The strongest entries enter the record

Winning a contest is one thing. Joining the record is another. Select pieces from Bylines for Justice are added to the Modern Red Record, our living archive of truth, connecting the activism Ida documented in 1895 to the storytellers documenting it now. That is what gives the movement its teeth: not a museum, a record still being written.

Enter Bylines for Justice

Pick up her pen.

Tell us who you are and what you're chasing. We'll send you the prompt, the guidelines, and the moment entries open.

  • Open to students, citizen writers, and local reporters
  • Mentorship, publication, and film-rollout consideration
  • Strongest work joins the Modern Red Record

You're on the record.

Thank you. We'll be in touch with the prompt, the guidelines, and the moment entries open.

Bylines for Justice

She got the facts. Now it's your turn.

Every byline is a light turned on. Add yours to the record she started.

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