(1895) Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, “Address to the First National Conference of Colored Women”

January 29, 2007 / Contributed By: BlackPast

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In 1894 Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin founded the Women’s New Era Club, a charitable organization of sixty prominent black women in Boston.  Soon afterwards she began editing its monthly publication, the Women’s Era.  Encouraged by the success of the New Era Club and heartened by the rapid growth of similar black women’s groups across the nation, Ruffin organized and convened the first National Conference of Colored Women at the Charles Street A. M. E. Church in Boston in 1895. While the new organization emphasized its refusal to exclude non-black women, Ruffin nonetheless argued that African American women needed to take the leadership for their own welfare.  Two years after the convention met, the National Association of Colored Women was formed with Mary Church Terrell as its first president and Ruffin as editor of the Women’s Era, now the official newspaper for the national organization.  Ruffin’s speech on July 29, 1895 to the assembled women at the Charles Street Church appears below.  

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Author Admin, B. (2007, January 29). (1895) Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, “Address to the First National Conference of Colored Women”. BlackPast.org. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1895-josephine-st-pierre-ruffin-address-first-national-conference-colored-women/

 

Source of the Author's Information:

Woman’s Era 2 (August 1895), 13-15.