--- title: Ida B. Wells: Today's Google Doodle Celebrates Her Birthday description: The Google Doodle celebrates journalist and activist Ida B. Wells' 153rd birthday. canonical: https://time.com/3960699/google-doodle-ida-b-wells/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-16T13:48:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:20.430Z og:title: Today's Google Doodle Celebrates Journalist Ida B. Wells' Birthday og:description: She was a journalist, newspaper editor and civil rights activist og:url: https://time.com/3960699/google-doodle-ida-b-wells/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde8164797f872e1b/69885b298e060151614616a2/ida-b-wells-153rd-birthday.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: ida-b-wells-153rd-birthday og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Today's Google Doodle Celebrates Journalist Ida B. Wells' Birthday twitter:description: She was a journalist, newspaper editor and civil rights activist twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde8164797f872e1b/69885b298e060151614616a2/ida-b-wells-153rd-birthday.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Today's Google Doodle Celebrates Journalist Ida B. Wells' Birthday ## Video: How Google Makes its Doodles [Watch (HLS stream): How Google Makes its Doodles](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/upF0qp1E.m3u8) (3:23)  _Published 2018-07-07. Our videographer went to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California to meet some of the designers and coders who create the special, clever variations on the Google.com logo known as_  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jul 16, 2015 1:48 PM UTC  Google  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jul 16, 2015 1:48 PM UTC Today is Ida B. Wells’ 153rd birthday, and the Google Doodle is celebrating her accordingly with a sketch of the famous journalist and activist sitting at her desk working at a typewriter. Wells was a journalist and newspaper editor at the turn of the 20th century who documented civil rights abuses and worked toward women’s suffrage. She was editor of two papers in Memphis by the time she was 25, and later moved to Chicago where she ran the _Chicago Conservator_. Calling her “fearless and uncompromising,” [Google explained](https://www.google.com/doodles/ida-b-wells-153rd-birthday) its choice to honor her in the Doodle: “We salute Ida B. Wells with a Doodle that commemorates her journalistic mettle and her unequivocal commitment to the advancement of civil liberties.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3960699/google-doodle-ida-b-wells/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3960699/google-doodle-ida-b-wells/"},"headline":"Today's Google Doodle Celebrates Journalist Ida B. 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