In this groundbreaking year for women in politics, it can be easy to forget that less than a century ago, American women weren't even allowed to vote. June 4 marks the 89th anniversary of Congress's ratification of the 19th Amendment, a watermark that Ida B. Wells would surely be proud of.

Born in Holly Springs, Mississippi in 1862, Wells lived in slavery until the end of the American Civil War in 1865. She was only 14 when her parents succumbed to a yellow fever epidemic, leaving young Ida to raise six siblings while working as a teacher and putting herself through a local college.

By her early twenties, Wells had moved to Memphis and become a leading figure in the city's burgeoning civil rights movement. She began writing anti-segregationist manifestos after being forced off a whites-only passenger train car. Wells quickly rose to the position of editor at the anti-segregationist newspaper Free Speech, where she wielded considerable political power. After three African-American shop owners were lynched by a white mob in 1892, Wells wrote a scathing editorial urging blacks to pack up and leave a city that offered them few rights and little protection. Many citizens followed her advice, and Wells herself soon relocated to Chicago after an angry mob destroyed her newspaper office.

In Chicago, Wells became more involved with the women's suffrage movement, a nationwide campaign to establish voting rights for women. She worked closely with prominent movement leaders like Susan B. Anthony and Jane Addams and founded the Alpha Suffrage Club, the first such organization for black women. The hard work and sacrifice of Wells and her friends paid off when the 19th Amendment was officially ratified in 1920.

Today, it is almost unfathomable to think of the massive adversity and positive changes Ida B. Wells witnessed in her lifetime. In this historic election year, we can clearly see the fruits of her labors on behalf of America's voiceless. That is truly a legacy to honor, and a goddess to emulate.