Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin (31 August 1842 13 March 1924) was an American publisher, journalist, African American civil rights leader, suffragist, and editor for Women s Era, the first newspaper published by and for African American women. Her husband, George Lewis Ruffin was the first African-American male graduate from Harvard Law School and the first African-American municipal judge. Ruffin was born in Boston, Massachusetts to John St. Pierre, a Frenchman from Martinique of African descent, and Elizabeth Matilda Menhenick from Cornwall, England. Her father was a successful clothier and founder of a Boston Zion church. She attended public schools in Charleston and Salem, and a private school in New York City because of her parents' objections to the segregated schools in Boston. She completed her studies at the Bowdoin School, not to be confused with Bowdoin College, after segregation in Boston schools ended.