Negro Fellowship League
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The Negro Fellowship League (NFL) Reading Room and Social Center was one of the first black settlement houses in Chicago. It was founded by Ida B. Wells and her husband Ferdinand Barnett in 1910,[1] and provided social services and community resources for black men arriving in Chicago from the south during the Great Migration. Resources included helping them find employment, housing, voting access, literacy and education resources, and more.[2][3]
In addition to providing resources to men arriving in the city, the Negro Fellowship League served as an office for Ida B. Wells to organize community events, spread information, and practice her activism.[4][5] It also served as the meeting location for the Alpha Suffrage Club, the suffrage organization founded by Wells to engage black women voters.[6]
Wells felt strongly that people should have access to educational resources and stay informed on issues. She owned and operated several newspapers, including the Fellowship Herald, the official newspaper for the Negro Fellowship League. The Fellowship Herald was a resource to help community members stay informed on events and issues that many white-owned papers did not cover, particularly around incidents of racially motivated violence and lynching.[7]