Ruth Standish Bowles Baldwin (December 5, 1865 – December 14, 1934) was an American

suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to vo ...

and a co-founder of the

National Urban League The National Urban League (NUL), formerly known as the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, is a nonpartisan historic civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of economic and social justice for Afri ...

Early life and education

Ruth Standish Bowles was born in

Ludlow, Massachusetts Ludlow is a New England town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 21,002 as of the 2020 census, and it is considered part of the Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. Located just northeast of Springfield ...

, the daughter of journalist and abolitionist Samuel Bowles III and Mary Sanford Dwight Schermerhorn Bowles. Her parents were friends with poet

Emily Dickinson Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massac ...

and her family. She graduated from

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...

in 1887.

Career

In 1905, Baldwin joined with

Frances Kellor Frances Alice Kellor (October 20, 1873 – January 4, 1952) was an American social reformer and investigator, who specialized in the study of immigrants to the United States and women. She was secretary and treasurer of the New York State Immigr ...

, a social worker and attorney, to form the National League for the Protection of Colored Women in order to protect women migrating to the north who might be "easy targets for con men who could lead them into prostitution". The NLPCW organized to steer women into safe employment instead. She founded the Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negros with

George Edmund Haynes George Edmund Haynes (May 11, 1880 – January 8, 1960) was an American sociology scholar and federal civil servant, a co-founder and first executive director of the National Urban League, serving 1911 to 1918.

in 1910. She wrote of the principles behind her work:

Let us work together, not as colored people, nor as white people, for the narrow benefit of any group alone, but together, as American citizens for the common good of our common city, our common country.

From this work, Baldwin became a co-founder of the National Urban League, and chair of the league's board from 1913 to 1915. She helped found

Highlander Folk School The Highlander Research and Education Center, formerly known as the Highlander Folk School, is a social justice leadership training school and cultural center in New Market, Tennessee. Founded in 1932 by activist Myles Horton, educator Don West ...

at the end of her life. She corresponded with

Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, and orator. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the primary leader in the African-American community and of the contemporary Black elite#United S ...

. Baldwin was the first woman elected to a permanent position on the board of trustees at Smith College, serving on the board from 1906 to 1926. "The business of the College, transacted in the presence of a mind so clear and sympathies so ardent, undergoes a change," wrote a colleague at Smith. "To express at all what Mrs. Baldwin is and what she has given Smith College would require more space and more art than the present writer has at her command."

Personal life and legacy

Bowles married railroad tycoon

William Henry Baldwin Jr. William Henry Baldwin Jr. (February 5, 1863 – January 3, 1905) was an American railroad executive and philanthropist. He was president of the Long Island Rail Road. and was instrumental in establishing African-American industrial education by s ...

in 1889. They had two children, also named Ruth and William. Her daughter married artist

John Fulton Folinsbee John Fulton "Jack" Folinsbee (March 14, 1892 – May 10, 1972) was an American landscape, marine and portrait painter, and a member of the art colony at New Hope, Pennsylvania. He is best known today for his impressionist scenes of New Hope ...

. Her husband died in 1905, and she died in 1934, at the age of 69, in New York. The economist

Samuel Bowles Samuel Bowles may refer to: *Samuel Bowles (journalist) (1826–1878), American journalist *Samuel Bowles (economist) Samuel Stebbins Bowles (; born June 1, 1939), is an American economist and professor emeritus at the University of Massachuset ...

is her grand-nephew, son of her nephew Chester B. Bowles, who was notable as a governor of Connecticut and an ambassador. Ruth Standish Baldwin and George Haynes are honored as founders of the National Urban League with a plaque on the Extra Mile Path in Washington, D.C.

References

External links

* Deborah Baldwin
"Searching for Ruth"
''The New Historia''; an essay by Baldwin's great-granddaughter. {{DEFAULTSORT:Baldwin, Ruth 1865 births 1934 deaths American women founders Smith College alumni