Dr. Ira James Kohath Wells

                               Ira James Kohath Wells, educator, editor and
                               political organizer (also known as I.J.K. Wells)
                               was born in Tamo, Arkansas, July 1, 1898 to
                               William James Wells and Emma Brown Wells

                               He attended elementary school under the esteemed
                               Professor Samuel Vaster at Tamo and finished high
                               school at Branch Normal College in Pine Bluff (now
                               the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff). He received
                               a B. A. degree in Business from Lincoln University
                               (Pennsylvania) in 1923. He was a contemporary
                               classmate of the distinguished educator and scholar,
                               Dr. Horace Mann Bond and eminent poet and educator,
                               Melvin Tolson.

                               While at Lincoln University, Wells was a leader and
                               organizer. The 1923 Lincoln Yearbook, The PAW,
                               described him as a member of the Student Anti-
                               Lynching delegation before President Warren Harding,
                               and founder and student organizer of the "Colored
                               Student Movement."

                                Dr. Wells received an honorary Doctor of Pedagogy
                                degree from Lincoln University in 1941, an honorary
                                Doctor of Laws degree from Allen University, and a
                                Master of Arts degree from the University of Pittsburgh
                                in 1944. The citation given by Lincoln University's
                                Dean, George Johnson, on conferring the Honorary
                                Doctor of Pedagogy read- Ira James Kohath Wells
                                        "a man of versatile interests; with
                                         knowledge of human nature, endowed with
                                         great sympathy for all sorts and conditions
                                         of men; an able exponent of interracial
                                         understanding; a cooperative worker in
                                         every field of social uplift; a most loyal
                                         alumnus who Lincoln University delights
                                         to honor."

                                As an educator, Dr. Wells was the State Supervisor
                                of Negro Education in West Virginia from 1933 to
                                1952. This position, the first of its kind in the country
                                which he helped to create, enabled African-Americans
                                to have a greater voice in the administration and
                                supervision of their schools. As a major key officer in
                                West Virginia education, he is credited with helping
                                build the " Best integrated state school system in America."
                                He was a teacher at Stratton High School, Beckley,
                                West Virginia. In later years (1971), he initiated the
                                Black Studies program at Cheyney State College, PA.

                                He was the organizer and chairman of the Negro Democratic
                                Committee of West Virginia. In the 1932 presidential election,
                                he was one of the country's leaders who helped change
                                the majority of African-Americans' allegiances since the
                                Civil War from the Republican Party to the Democrat Party.

                                His first job after college was with the Pittsburgh Courier
                                which he considered one of the most beneficial of his life
                                which established his interest in journalism. He founded
                                and published Color Magazine, the first African-American
                                pictorial magazine, in 1944. It was patterned after Life Magazine,
                                and reached a circulation over a hundred thousand before its
                                demise fourteen years later. He sold stock in Color Inc. to finance
                                the magazine.

                                Dr. Wells had two brothers, Lewis and C.L Wells, three sisters,
                                Evelyn Wells, Emma Wells Dawson, and Genoa Wells Keith.
                                He was married to Edna Virginia Clowden (1934) of Anawalt,
                                West Virginia, a school teacher. He was the father of two
                                children, Ira James Kohath Wells, Jr., and Edna Anita V.
                                He died of a stroke on December 26, 1997 in Philadelphia,
                                Pennsylvania.

                                My mother, Mary Bluford Turner, knew the Wells family.
                                She was a dear friend of Genoa Wells Keith. in 1994, Solomon L.
                                Keith, (Genoa's son) sent my mother a copy of a picture of
                                the 1935 Wells Family Reunion in Tamo, Arkansas. My father's
                                step brother, Cap Shelton, was in the picture.

                                My recollections are of Genoa Wells Keith pressing and curling
                                my hair as a child in 1946 in St. Louis, Missouri, subsequent
                                visitations to her home, and contacts with her son. Emma Wells
                                Dawson's husband owned a Variety Store in Pine Bluff, near
                                4th and State Streets where I worked briefly as a teenager.

                                During Dr. Wells long career he championed the rights of workers
                                and the rights of African-Americans. He used African Art, Culture
                                and History to enhance the self-image of African- Americans.
                               He left an enduring legacy of achievement and service, and in
                               1985 was honored as a recipient of the Distinguished West
                               Virginia Award during the West Virginia Black Cultural Festival.



     Sources:             Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Newspaper, Obituary, Sunday,
                                January 25, 1998.
                                A Short Sketch About I.J.K. Wells, Sr., A Resident of Philadelphia.
                                Lincoln University Library Special Collections, The PAW." 1923
                                Lincoln University Yearbook.
                                University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Museum and Cultural Center.
                                "Recollections of Gladys Turner Finney."