An ongoing illustrative history study
This piece originally posted 9/23/2020
Prelude | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | Email |
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"If laws are unjust, they must be continually broken until they are altered."
Beacon Hill-born Josephine St. Pierre (later Ruffin) was fortunate enough to be educated in Salem, MA at one of America's earliest integrated schools. Her mixed parentage might otherwise have been a scandalous disadvantage (her mother was a white Englishwoman and her father was from Martinique), but her father being the founder of the Boston Zion Church offered some compensation. Her eventual husband, George Lewis Ruffin, was himself the first African American to graduate from Harvard Law School, the first to serve in the Massachusetts state legislature, and eventually appointed a judge of the municipal court of Charlestown, MA. After the notorious Dred Scott decision the Ruffins lived briefly in England, but moved back to their beloved Boston at the start of the Civil War, working as recruiters for the Sanitary Commission (a precursor to the Red Cross). Josephine Ruffin founded the American Women Suffrage Association and was also the first black member of the New England Women's Club --two significant statuses which she would be able to parley into something greater.
Josephine Ruffin is probably best known for being the founder/editor of The Woman's Era, the first newspaper published by and for African American women. Begun after her husband's death in 1886 (and with help from her daughter Florida Ruffin Ridley --look ahead to Lesson #87 in this series), this particular paper began as a local Boston journal but quickly grew to nationwide distribution. An unapologetically feminist publication, it was a significant voice for antilynching, womens' suffrage, and improved education opportunities for black Americans; carrying provocative interviews with such figures as Ida B. Wells (see Lesson #33 in this series) and even Harriet Tubman. Also of note, the paper advocated for Hawaiian independence --a volatile topic in the 1890's.
In August 1895 Ruffin organized and convened the First National Conference of the Colored Women of America (42 local and state organizations participated), which ultimately became the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), with Mary Church Terrell (see Lesson #29 in this series) as its president. Editorially The Woman's Era became the national news outlet of the NACW. The paper only lasted for seven years but its contribution to the national dialogue of rights for African American women cannot be overstated. Ruffin is also named as one of the charter co-founders of the NAACP (1910).
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