In 'They Say, ' James West Davidson recounts the first thirty years in the passionate life of Ida B. Wells--as well as the story of the great struggle over the meaning of race in post-emancipation America. Davidson captures the breathtaking and often chaotic changes that swept the South as Wells grew up in Holly Springs, Mississippi: the spread of education among free blacks, the rise of political activism, and the bitter struggles for equality in the face of entrenched social custom.

When Wells came of age she moved to bustling Memphis, where her quest for personal fulfillment...