Basic Information

Josephine B. Willson was born on October 29, 1853, into the Black aristocracy of Philadelphia. After receiving her education, she became a teacher in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1878 she married one of the first Black United States senators, Blanche K. Bruce. She would go on to become a leading Washington hostess, women’s club organizer, and was tireless in her efforts to lead the Black women’s rights movement.

Background Information

Josephine Beal Willson Bruce was born into a free and aristocratic family in Philadelphia. She was the third of five children born to Dr. Joseph Willson, a dentist and writer, and Elizabeth Willson (née Harnett), an accomplished musician (Graham, 2007). Both Dr. and Mrs. Willson had unique family backgrounds considering the era and their race. Though his parents never married, Dr. Willson was born to a free black mother and a wealthy white father. Mrs. Willson was born to a free black mother and her father was a Scottish immigrant (Graham, 2007). Their families resided in the Northeast, in affluent financial circumstances, and were well educated and associated in the influential, elite, and mixed-race social strata of Philadelphia (Graham, 2007). Dr. Willson moved his family to Cleveland Ohio when Josephine was but a child, it was here she was raised and received her education (Graham, 2007). After graduating from Cleveland’s Central High School in 1871, she went on to complete a teacher training course, after which she joined the faculty at one of the city’s racially integrated elementary schools (Clark Hine, 1993). In 1878, Josephine married Blanch K. Bruce, the first black man elected to a full six-year term as a senator from Mississippi (Graham, 2007).

Contributions to the First Wave

Senator and Mrs. Bruce made a powerhouse couple on the Washington social and political scene. They not only persevered despite the blatant racism they faced, but they thrived. Mrs. Bruce used her passion for education, her social position, and wealth to further the wellbeing and progress of Black American’s, particularly Black women, through her civic and educational work. It was through the bourgeoning women’s club’s movements of the 1890’s that Mrs. Bruce facilitated the progress of feminism and the suffrage movement. In an article she wrote in August of 1915 for The Crisis (the official magazine of the NAACP) titled “Colored Women’s Clubs” she details the formation of the initial National Federation of Colored Women in 1895, at a conference that was convened to “refute a vicious statement by an evil minded individual” (Bruce, 1915). The following July, the first convention of the National League of Colored Women was held, and the two organizations joined forces under the name National Association of Colored Women (NACW) (Bruce, 1915). An intrepid leader in the fight for suffrage and Black women’s rights, Mrs. Bruce would go on to serve as the first vice president in the NACW (Clark Hine, 1993). In addition to writing for The Crisis, she wrote three articles for The Voice of the Negro. In one of these articles, titled “What Had Education Done for Colored Women” she speaks to the correlation of education and improvement in the conditions of Black women (Bruce, 1904). After her husband died in 1898, she was invited by Booker T. Washington to replace his wife as lady Dean at his Tuskegee Institute, she held the position until 1902. Bruce would serve as a role model for the young women there, the majority of whom were from the rural South (Clark Hine, 1993).

“The new found pleasure in doing something really worthwhile is quite sufficient as a motive power to keep things going”

– Josephine Beal Willson Bruce, after the 1904 conference of the National Association of Colored Women (Clark Hine)

Analysis and Conclusion

To understand the significance of Bruce’s contribution to the women’s movement, it is important to acknowledge the intersection of her racial identity with the political and social atmosphere of the time. Today, she would be considered bi-racial or mix-raced, she was living in a time of fixed categories, however. A person was either Black or white according to the “one-drop rule” that is, if a person had any black ancestry, they were considered black. Add to this, the period of Reconstruction was ending when she married the senator, the opposing ideologies of southern politicians seeking to establish and maintain white supremacy, had firmly rooted. Jim Crow, segregation, and the false and devastating narrative that Blacks were incapable of functioning as intelligent, educated, progressive human beings outside the oppressive slave construct was ever present in the Black American experience. Josephine Bruce’s very presence on the scene, her culture, her education, and intelligence subverted the negative narrative. She was everything the gracious and genteel Victorian woman was supposed to be. It created a conundrum for the elite Washington circles she had moved into. She faced media scrutiny before her honeymoon was over and she was ensconced as a new bride in Washington. One newspaper reported “She is a lady of fine personal appearance…better educated than most of the women who intend to snub her if she presumes to enter society” (Graham, 2007, 99). The new Mrs. Bruce did not demure in the face of such blatant racism; she actively participated in supporting her spouse, she didn’t just join the women’s clubs, she participated in organizing and leading them. If it wasn’t the racism of white’s that tried to thwart her contribution, it was the Black sensitivity to her appearance; her complexion was considered too light to hold the office of president for the NACW (Clark Hine, 1993). Undaunted, Bruce continued to contribute via her field of expertise, education. Her legacy is having found that something worthwhile, persisting against the odds, shattering the false narrative, and empowering Black women who would continue the fight.

References

Bruce, J. (1904). What Has Education Done for Colored Women. The Voice of the Negro. New York: Negro Universities Press (1969). https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.32000013344009&view=1up&seq=7

Bruce, J. (1915). Colored Women’s Clubs. The Crisis. New York, N.Y.: NAACP. Aug 1915. https://library.brown.edu/pdfs/128895937640750.pdf

Clark Hine, D. (Ed.) (1993). Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Carlson Pub.

Graham, L. (2007). The Senator and the Socialite: The True Story of America’s First Black Dynasty (1st Harper Perennial ed.). New York: Harper Perennial.

Decker, E. (photographer). (2 Jan 1873). Josephine Beall Willson Bruce, 1873. Wikimedia Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Josephine_Beall_Willson_Bruce.jpg