Great read. 

Last Sunday I set out with a group of enthusiastic cyclists of color on a mission to ride our bicycles six miles from Chicago’s Back of the Yards community to the burial site of Ida B. Wells at Oak Woods Cemetery in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood. Organized by members of the #LetUsBreathe Collective and myself, our intent was to ride out to reclaim a past and history that has rarely been taught accurately and to honor the life and contributions of Wells, a legendary anti-lynching activist, suffragist, and NAACP co-founder.

We chose bicycles as our means of transportation because for marginalized groups, cycling has historically been a political act. In the 1890s, the bicycle was used a means for the emancipation of women during the first wave of feminism. Riding a bicycle allowed women to escape the constraints of domestic life, thus allowing them the freedom and mobility to organize for equal rights. For Black people cycling can also be a means of liberation. It can be used as a tool to improve health and fitness, save money, and work to reduce the air pollution that disproportionately impacts Black people.

About Ida B. Wells:

Wells dedicated a portion of her life to debunking the myth of the predatory black male, which justified the killing of thousands of black men in the late 1800s and 1900s. She documented and reported on hundreds of lynchings in the South, proving they were fueled by racial prejudice.

Full Article on Streetsblog:
http://chi.streetsblog.org/2017/06/02/the-black-power-bike-ride-a-j...

Jessico, thanks for the article. 

If you want to join their rides:

Please join us later this summer on our next Black Power Bike Ride to Emmett Till’s burial site, in Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois. For more information and future events, please check out the #LetUsBreathe Collective on Facebook.