the distinction which was his, of being one of
the best young lawyers at the Boston bar."
Florida Yates Ruffin was graduated from the
Boston High and Normal Schools, and was the
second colored woman to receive an appoint-
ment as teacher in the public schools of Boston.
She is now the wife of U. A. Ridley and the
mother of two children. As the first secretary
of the Woman's Era Club and one of its leading
members, she aided her mother in making a
great success of the first convention of colored
women in the country.
Stanley Ruffin, a graduate of the Massachu- setts Institute of Technology and an inventor, is the general manager and treasurer of a man- ufacturing company in Boston.
George L. Ruffin, the youngest son, is a graduate of the English High School of Boston. He has marked musical ability, and for some years he was a boy soprano at the Church of the Advent. He is a member of the vested choir of Trinity Church, Boston, has been a member of the Handel and Haydn Society and of the Cecilia Musical Society, and is now the organist of St. Augustine's Church, Boston.
At an early age Mrs. Ruffin became identified with reform movements: the advancement of woman and the welfare of the colored race, especially of the children, were questions that strongly appealed to her sympathies. At the time when, after the close of the Civil War, many colored people were fleeing from oppression in the South and pouring into Kansas, often arriving in destitute circumstances, she called the women of her neighborhood at the West End together for the purjxxse of devising ways and means of helping the needy refugees. An organization was formed, named the Kansas Relief Association, of which she was made president. Under her direction and aided by the wise counsels of William Lloyd Garrison, work was immediately begun, and carried forward with zeal and alacrity, resulting in the shipment to Kansas of many bales and boxes of clothing, both new and old, and also in the sending of money through Kidder, Peabody & Co.
Success in this philanthropic effort led to co-operation with the A.ssociated Charities, then just starting in Boston, Mrs. Ruffin acting as a visitor for about eleven years. She also joined in the work of the Country Week Society, devoting herself to the task, considered exceptionally difficult, of finding places in the country for colored chiklren.
Mrs. Ruffin has been for many years an ac- tive member of the Massachusetts Moral Edu- cational A.ssociation and of the Massachusetts School Suffrage Association and a member of the executive board of each. As editor of the Woman's Era, she has the privilege of membership in the New England Woman's Press Association. The Woman's Era (now dormant, December, 1903, but with hopes of being revived) was the organ of the colored women of America, and exerted an influence that was widely recognized.
Mrs. Ruffin was one of the founders of the Association for the Promotion of Child-training in the South, which has accomplished good re- sults. It is interested in a school at Atlanta, Ga., among whose regular visitors were several prominent women of that State.
As the first president of the Woman's Fa-a Club of Boston, Mrs. Ruffin has gained a na- tional reputation. This club was formed "for colored women and by colored women, to the end that problems of vital interest to the col- ored jjopulation might be discussed." From the beginning the club evinced a progressive spirit, and the meetings were full of interest. Mrs. Ruflin is an able woman, well read, keen- witted, pleasing in manner, and has the uplift- ing of the colored race sincerely at heart. She, more than any other woman, formed the club, and much of the success is due to her good sense and enterprise.
In L'^QS it was decided to hoUl a national convention of colored women in Boston. This convention was decitledly interesting, ami the outcome was the formation of a federation of colored women's clubs. Since 1895 the W^oman's Era Club has been connected with the Massa- chusetts State Federation, and its president has participated in the sessions of the State conference. Mrs. Ruffin has also been elected a member of the Massachusetts State Federa- tion and an officer on its board.
The Woman's Era Club continues its meetings twice each month, and a few white women, who were cordially welcomed to membership,
