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George Lewis Ruffin (December 16, 1834 – November 19, 1886) was an American barber, attorney, politician, and judge. In 1869, he graduated from Harvard Law School, the first African American to do so. He was also the first African American elected to the Boston City Council. [1]
Sep 30, 2011 · George Lewis Ruffin 1869 and Archibald H. Grimke 1874, the first two blacks to graduate from HLS, entered a school that was still a “stronghold of anti-black feeling,” Coquillette said. Ruffin served as a Massachusetts court judge until his death 1886, and Grimke, an escaped slave from South Carolina, became national vice president of the ...
George Lewis Ruffin. Pioneer Jurist. He was the first African-American to graduate from Harvard Law School in 1869, to serve on the Massachusetts state legislature as a Republican (1869-71), to serve on the Boston City Council (1876-78), and as Boston's first black municipal judge.
Ruffin died from kidney disease at age 52 in 1886. His legacy continues: in 1984 the George Lewis Ruffin Society was established to support minority professionals in the Massachusetts criminal justice system and to promote understanding between minority communities and the criminal justice system.
On November 19, 1886, George Lewis Ruffin died at the age of 52. Josephine continued to utilize her resources and connections to continue her social justice work. She founded, published,...
Jan 19, 2007 · George Lewis Ruffin died on November 19, 1886 in Boston, Massachusetts leaving his widow, three sons and a daughter. In his honor, the George Lewis Ruffin Society was founded at Northeastern University in 1984 to support minorities studying in the Massachusetts criminal justice system.
By most accounts, Ruffin donated so much of his income to social causes and charities that he died poor. He died November 20, 1886, of Bright's disease after several weeks of illness. Ruffin's legacy was honored in 1984, the year the Justice George Lewis Ruffin Society was founded.
