Monument to activist, journalist Ida B. Wells unveiled June 30, 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail CHICAGO (AP) — A monument to journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett was unveiled Wednesday in Chicago. Officially called The Light of Truth Ida B. Wells National Monument, the commemoration created by sculptor Richard Hunt was dedicated in the South Side neighborhood where Wells lived out her life. The monument has three bronze columns that support intertwined bronze sheets twisted into coils and spirals. One observer had trouble describing the abstraction at the top of the monument, asking if it was hat or a crown of thorns. She was more certain about the columns.