Florida sounds like an interesting person, but she is not in the same league as a US President. Especially one with the personal rectitude of Silent Cal.
Biographical Sketch of Florida Ruffin Ridley, 1861-1943
Biographical Database of Black Woman Suffragists
Biographical Sketch of Florida Ruffin Ridley, 1861-1943
By Talia Sharpp, undergraduate student, Hampton University
Florida Ruffin was born to Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin and George Lewis Ruffin, both prominent figures in Boston society, in 1861. George Lewis Ruffin, a native of Richmond, Virginia, was the first African American to graduate from Harvard Law School; he later became the Charlestown Municipal Court Judge, and was a member of the Massachusetts Legislature and the Boston Common Council. Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin was an abolitionist, anti-lynching crusader, club leader, editor, feminist, suffragist, and orator. Florida Ruffin was one of four children born to Josephine St. Pierre and George Lewis Ruffin. As evidenced by her parents’ many accomplishments, the Ruffin household greatly valued education, social justice, and civic engagement.
Florida Ruffin followed the examples set forth by her parents by graduating from Boston Teacher’s College and Boston University, and becoming the second African American school teacher in the Boston Public Schools. Ruffin thrived in her career as an educator up until 1888, when she married Ulysses A. Ridley, a successful tailor in the city. Florida Ruffin Ridley and her husband settled in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1896, where they raised two children, Constance and Ulysses A. Ridley, Jr. The couple is recognized as the first African American homeowners in the town of Brookline, where they were also long-time members of the Second Unitarian Church.
Ridley was not your average society woman. Under her mother, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, Ridley served as editor of The Women’s Era newspaper, recognized as the first newspaper to be owned, managed, and published by African American women. The Women’s Era was the official journal of the Colored Women’s League, which would later merge into the National Association of Colored Women (NACW). Ridley worked very closely with her mother in their professional pursuits, and the two also collaborated to found the League of Women for Community Service. Separately, Ridley forged her own path as a club woman, civil rights activist, essayist, and journalist through her various publications on race relations in New England and the founding of the Society of the Descendants of Early New England Negroes. It was Ridley’s hope that through her work she could utilize her passion for history to enhance her understanding of the issues surrounding social justice. Evident in the membership that Ridley also held in the Twentieth Century Club and the Women’s City Club of Boston, both predominantly white clubs, was her belief that both races deserved an equal place in society.
Florida Ruffin Ridley died in her daughter’s Ohio home on February 25, 1943. Her home still stands, and is a stop on the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.