to improve the lives of immigrants and children, would be criticized for not helping another marginalized group: Chicago's Black community.

- Jane Addams was a radical in her time in so many ways, but she was, you know, what we might think of today as a white liberal.

And so issues around race is where her thinking about democracy didn't always align with the people that most needed her support.

- [Narrator] A public exchange between Addams and civil rights activist Ida B.

Wells would highlight her shortcomings when it came to race.

In 1901, Wells asked Addams to speak out against the horrors of lynching.

In response, Addams wrote an article condemning lynching as a means of punishment.

But she made the assumption that the victims were guilty of the crimes they'd been charged with.

- [Jane] "The bestial in man, that which leads him to pillage and rape, can never be controlled by public cruelty, and dramatic punishment."

- Ida B. Wells-Barnett said this is terrible.

You don't say the most important thing, which is that these are innocent people and it's our racism that is actually causing us to go and lynch innocent people.

- Ida B.

Wells says, okay, whoa, that's not true.

And she writes a rebuttal to the argument.

- [Narrator] Wells argued that lynching had become "America's national crime".

Addams' interaction with Wells proved she had much to learn.

- She had gaps in her thinking.

She had blind spots.

But the key thing was that she was listening carefully and close enough so she could learn over time.

- [Narrator] Despite their differences, Addams and Wells worked together for the next decade on causes that furthered racial equality.

- I would not say that they were friends, but I think they had a great deal of respect for the other one, which allowed them to come together in crisis situations.

- [Narrator] Addams and Wells helped block efforts to segregate public schools in Chicago, and they joined forces again in 1909 to co-found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People or NAACP.