josephine ruffin

Josephine Ruffin (born August 31, 1842 in Boston - March 13, 1924 in Boston) was born as Josephine St. Pierre. She was a civil rights leader. Her mother was a white woman and her father had been born in Martinique. John St. Pierre was a successful clothes dealer and was able to afford a good education for his daughter. He objected to the segregated schools in Boston and so she was sent to Salem to be educated. When she was sixteen she married George Lewis Ruffin, the first African-American to graduate from Harvard Law School. The couple were both active in the struggle against slavery and during the Civil War they helped recruit black soldiers for the Union Army. She also supported women's suffrage and in 1869 joined with Julia Ward Howe and Lucy Stone formed the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) in Boston. In 1895 Ruffin organised the formation of the National Federation of Afro-American Women. The following year it merged with the Colored Women's League to form the National Association of Colored Women (NACW). Mary Church Terrell was elected president and Ruffin served as one of the organization's vice-presidents. She remained active in the struggle for equal rights and in 1910 helped form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Ruffin, Josephine Ruffin, Josephine Ruffin, Josephine

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