Michelle Duster is an American author and public historian. She is known for her work to preserve the legacy of her great-grandmother, Ida B. Wells.
Michelle Duster was born in Chicago to Maxine Duster and Donald L. Duster. Her father worked for Comed,[1] and her mother was an English teacher and civic leader.[2] She is the paternal great-granddaughter of Ida B. Wells. Growing up in Chicago's South Side, Duster began writing from an early age. While in high school, she entered essay contests and was a writer for the school newspaper.[3] In 1985, she obtained her B.A. in Psychology from Dartmouth College.[4] She went on to obtain an M.A. in Media Studies from The New School.[5]
Duster has worked to preserve Ida B. Wells' legacy both through written publications and public history projects.[6][7][8] She has written one children's book, Ida B. Wells, Voice of Truth: Educator, Feminist, and Anti-lynching Civil Rights Leader[9] and one young adult biography, Ida B. The Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy Of Ida B. Wells,[10][11] about her great-grandmother. She has also edited two anthologies of Wells' writing.
She received the Multi-Generational Activist Award from the Illinois Human Rights Commission in 2019, and the 2019 Martin Luther King Jr. Social Justice Award from her alma mater, Dartmouth College.[12]