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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] Ruffin was elected in 1870 to the Massachusetts Legislature.
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.
Ruffin was born in Richmond, Virginia, on December 16, 1834. He was the eldest of eight children of free blacks who had received some education. Ruffin's parents abandoned their small property in Richmond and moved their family to Boston in 1853, soon after the state of Virginia passed a law prohibiting blacks from learning to read.
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 NAACP.
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.
Mar 22, 2022 · Wilkins started his talk with George Lewis Ruffin LL.B. 1869, the first African American to graduate from Harvard Law School, four years after the Civil War, and the first Black person to receive a formal legal education in the United States.
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Feb 15, 2024 · Hon. Judge George L. Ruffin (NYPL Digital Collections) George Lewis Ruffin was born on December 16, 1834 in Richmond, Virginia and he moved to Boston with his family in 1853. He married Josephine St. Pierre on June 1, 1858 and worked as a barber while studying and writing about law. Ruffin participated in both the 1864 and 1865 National Negro ...
