Basic Information

Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin was born in Boston, Massachusetts on August 31, 1842. She was a woman who took on many roles; a civil rights activist, suffragist, and newspaper editor. Ruffin was best known for her career as one of the co-founders of the newspaper, The Woman’s Era,  known for being the first newspaper started and run by African American women from 1894 to 1897. In 1894, she also established the Women’s Era Club, which was one of the first African American women’s rights organizations. Ruffin organized one of the most widely known conventions during her time in 1895 called the first National Conference of Colored Women.

Background Information

Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin was the youngest of six children. She was born to John St. Pierre and Elizabeth Matilda Menhenick. Her father was the son of a Frenchman with a mix of French, African, and Native American descent from the island of Martinique (Terborg-Penn, 2015). Her mother was a native from Cornwall, England. Her father was a clothing shop owner and founder of the Zion Church in Boston. Her mother stayed home to take care of the house and children. She grew up in an interracial family who faced many challenges because mixed race families were not widely accepted at the time (Terborg-Penn, 2015). 

Ruffin faced racism early on in her childhood. Initially, she was enrolled in a private school, but six months later was expelled because of her interracial background. Her parents were upset by this discrimination and sent Ruffin to receive an education in North Carolina and even a private school in New York. Times changed in 1855, when Bostonian Governor, Henry J. Gardner signed a bill that outlawed segregated schools for children of color (Neal, 2016). Her parents then allowed her to return to school in Boston. She completed her education at the Bowdoin School, a finishing school for girls (Terborg-Penn, 2015).  

Her social class status continues to be debated. She is distinguished as elite by some as she came from one of the first African American families of Boston. Opposing views find that since she did not come from a family of wealth, but did marry into one, she is by default considered elite status (Terborg-Penn, 2015, p. 1). She married her husband, George Lewis Ruffin in 1858 at the age of 16 and he was 24. He came from a free and affluent black Virginian family. He was the first African American Harvard Law School graduate and the first black judge in the North. They moved to Liverpool, England right after they married. They didn’t want to raise their five children, one of which died in childbirth, in a country with racial discrimination and segregation. When the Civil War broke ground she and her husband returned to Boston to help recruit Union soldiers and fight to abolish slavery. They were also involved in the Sanitation Commission that provided aid to soldiers in the field. They worked tirelessly and supported one another until her husband’s death in 1886, which left her a widow at 44 years old (Lamphier & Welch, 2017). After her husband’s death, she dedicated herself full time to the empowerment of African American women. This led her to become an activist in women’s suffrage. 

Contributions to the First Wave

Journalism created a platform for Ruffin to bridge the gap between white and black women’s suffrage through civil rights equality. In addition, she convinced upper class black women to aid lower class black women through moral and academic education. Essentially, Ruffin played a vital role in “every movement to emancipate black women” (Thornton, 2017, p. 145). Determined to make a difference in black women’s lives, she, along with her daughter, and a Cambridge, Massachusetts’ school principal, Maria Baldwin, founded the Boston Woman’s Era Club for African American women. This influenced the mother daughter duo to start the Woman’s Era newspaper the following year. Their publication encouraged readers to “become informed about and actively involved in public issues such as suffrage and lynching” (Terborg-Penn, 2015, p. 5). It was also used to address “African American women’s troubling circumstances in the face of increasing discrimination” by encouraging club women to attend the First National Conference for Colored Women in Boston (Terborg-Penn, 2015, p. 5). This conference convinced African American women that they needed to take ownership of their lives by speaking up, out, and against adversity they faced from the white press and white suffrage groups. Journalism gave her a voice in a time where women of color were voiceless, ignored, and isolated. 

Her attempts to bring together white and black suffragists alike for the good of humanity was unsuccessful at times. For instance, at the 1900 convention put on by the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC) she was “personally discriminated against when seeking to represent her club” (Terborg-Penn, 1995, p. 147). She tried to be seated as a delegate for the Woman’s Era Club, but was denied by the GFWC. This sparked a controversy between Georgia and Massachusetts clubwomen that lasted two years. Each side was indecisive about whether or not the GFCW should grant membership to black women’s clubs, as it was the racial discrimination of the time  that only allowed white women’s clubs (Terborg-Penn, 1995).

Ruffin gained a national reputation for her work among social reformers. She knew white society thought of black and minority women as unintelligent, however, she made social reformers realize the injustice and inequalities surrounding the exclusion of black women from white women’s suffrage organizations. Ruffin attempted to change the status quo by becoming the first black club member of the American’s Women Suffrage Association (AWSA), an organization founded by Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell that did not discriminate based on sex or race (Terborg-Penn, 2015). This was a step forward for African American women who sought to be involved in white women’s clubs. Nevertheless, she believed that, as “women of all races and backgrounds formed coalitions, black women would excel; their abilities would become apparent, and they would provide ample evidence to counter preconceived notions and stereotypes about them” (Holden, 2005, p. 302). Ruffin was determined to advance the cause of black women for the good of social equality.

Her interest in women’s suffrage was maintained due in part to the friendships she kept with white women such as Ednah Dowe Cheney, Julia Ward Howe, Abby Morton Diaz, and Lucy Stone. They all warmly welcomed her into their clubs and organizations (Alexander, Newby-Alexander & Ford, 2008, p. 301). Her elite status allowed her to align herself with white educated women because they had similar ideas and interests. She served as a connecting force between elite black women and elite white women. Her relationships with black and white women suffragists and black male supporters were strengthened as Ruffin opened up her Charles Street home to all. It served as a place for conversation about issues such as civil rights, woman’s suffrage, racial discrimination, and more. They wanted to build a future that was free of the limitations and obstacles caused by racial and gender discrimination (Alexander et. al, 2008).

Towards the end of her life, St. Pierre Ruffin continued to be a strong, influential force. She laid the foundation for future female leaders and activists as she did in fact work with women who were 20 years younger than she. She made it about not only uplifting women of the present time, but also paving the way for future generations. Even at the age of 78, she was still very much involved in various organizations such as becoming a member of the Boston NAACP chapter in 1920. Just before her death in 1924, St. Pierre Ruffin attended “the League of Women for Community Service’s annual meeting (LWCS)” in Boston (Terborg-Penn, 2015, p. 11).

Seeking no favors because of our color, nor patronage because of our needs, we knock at the bar of justice, asking an equal chance.

~Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin (Alexander et. al, 2008, p. 308)

Analysis and Conclusion

Ruffin’s motivations for spreading social justice never ceased, despite the gender and racial discrimination she encountered. Her main focus was not solely the right to vote for black women, but human rights and universal suffrage. The legacy of starting and maintaining African American women’s clubs and their integration into white women’s suffrage clubs made a great difference in the lives of African American women. Although she faced many barriers being an outspoken woman of color, she never let them stop her from pursuing her goals. She chose to pursue her own agenda despite what the majority felt was right, which was keeping white and black women’s clubs separate.  

Her father’s business and religious background influenced how she ran her newspaper. As she became desperate for her newspaper to stay in production, she tried different marketing tactics to persuade her audience. One tactic was attacking the competition. She chastised the writers of the Ladies’ Home Journal, the largest women’s magazine in the country, for refusing to accept articles written by African-American women (Streitmatter, 1994). Furthermore, she expressed to its readers that if they were wealthy enough to subscribe to it, they should be ashamed of their race and gender. She then insisted that African-American women should cancel their subscriptions to the journal and use the money to subscribe to the Woman’s Era (Streitmatter, 1992, p. 35). Her creative and business mind was indicative of the African-American women journalists of her time (Streitmatter, 1992, p. 34). In addition, her strong family religious ties in her community influenced her at a young age. It provided her opportunities to lead as it did for African-Americans of her time who were “subjugated…in Boston’s white churches” (Holden, 2005, p. 14). These changes brought about more activist and assertive leaders who identified the needs of their community. The strong ties her family had in Boston’s black community “proved to be more lasting and valuable to Josephine than any wealth her father” had (Holden, 2005, p. 14). 

Although she was a single woman for part of her life, the passing of her husband didn’t stop her from pursuing greater roles. For lower class African American women, this would have left them disadvantaged. They would have been unable to support themselves without the financial assistance of their husbands. However, using her “skills and organizational abilities” she was able to “provide for herself and to promote African American women’s goals to reform society” (Terborg-Penn, 2015, p. 4). However, she did experience financial constraints as a single woman of color competing in a male dominated field. 

Her outspoken and controversial behavior led to her banishment from the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), a club she helped found. Eventually, this caused a deeper separation between black and white women’s suffrage groups. The integration of black women into white suffrage groups remained prohibited outside of her home state of Massachusetts. Despite her undying efforts to create unity there were times she struggled to make it work. Her commitment to women’s equality never wavered despite setbacks she encountered with her opposing views of the clubs she was involved in.

References

Alexander, W. H., Newby-Alexander, C. L., & Ford, C. H. (Eds.). (2008). Voices from within the veil : African Americans and the experience of democracy, Newcastle upon tyne:Cambridge Scholars Pub (pp. 300-310). Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com.

Holden, T. B. (2005). “Earnest women can do anything”: The public career of Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, 1842–1904. Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (305434172). Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/305434172?accountid=14784

Lamphier, P. & Welch, R. (2017). Women in American history: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia and Document Collection. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO LLC.

Neal, A. W. (2016). Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin: A pioneer in the black women’s club movement. The Boston Banner Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1764708029?accountid=14784

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library. (1900). Mrs. Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, Prominent Woman of Boston, Leader of the Club Movement Among Colored Women. Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-70ac-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.

Streitmatter, R. (1994). Raising her voice : African-American women journalists who changed history. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky.

Terborg-Penn, R. (2015). Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin: Civil Rights and Women’s Rights Trailblazer. Alexandria, VA: Alexander Street. Retrieved from Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 database. 

Terborg-Penn, R. (1995). African American Women and the Woman Suffrage Movement. In M.S. Wheeler (Ed.), One woman, One vote: Rediscovering the woman suffrage movement. (p. 147). Troutdale, Or.: NewSage Press.