Ruby Hurley
| Ruby Hurley | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
Ruby Ruffin November 7, 1909 Washington, D.C. |
| Died |
August 9, 1980 (aged 70) Atlanta, Georgia |
| Alma mater |
Miner Teachers College Robert H. Terrell Law School |
| Known for | Civil rights activism |
| Spouse(s) | William L. Hurley |
Ruby Hurley (November 7, 1909 – August 9, 1980) was a leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement and administrator for the NAACP. She was known as the "queen of civil rights".[1]
Early life and education
Ruby Ruffin was born on November 7, 1909 in Washington, D.C. to Alice and Edward R. Ruffin. She graduated from Dunbar High School in 1926.[2] She attended Miner Teachers College and Robert H. Terrell Law School. She worked briefly for the federal government and at the Industrial Bank of Washington.[1] She married William L. Hurley, a lieutenant in the US Army Corps of Engineers.[2]
In 1939, Hurley was on a committee that was tasked with arranging for a performance from Marian Anderson, an African-American opera singer who was barred from singing at Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution. The committee was able to secure a venue change and Anderson performed at an open air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a crowd of 75,000.[3]
Career with the NAACP
For the next four years, Hurley worked reorganizing the D.C. branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), bolstering their youth council. Walter Francis White, who headed the NAACP, appointed Hurley to the position of national Youth Secretary in 1943. She moved to New York City and stayed in that role until 1950. Hurley traveled across the country organizing youth councils and college chapters, increasing their number from 86 to over 280 during her tenure.[2]
In 1951, she moved from New York to Birmingham, Alabama to set up an NAACP office and oversee membership drives in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. It was the first permanent NAACP office located in the Deep South.[4] She became Regional Secretary of the NAACP's newly formed Southeast Regional Office the following year.[2] In 1955 Hurley joined with civil rights activists Amzie Moore and Medgar Evers, who was Field Secretary at the NAACP's Mississippi office, in investigating the murders of minister George W. Lee and 14-year-old Emmett Till.[1][5] In order to interview witnesses for Till's case, Hurley wore cotton picker's clothes.[2] Following the Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954, Hurley worked to implement racial integration in the South.[2] While she practiced Christian nonviolence, she appeared on the cover of Jet magazine's October 6, 1955 issue with a caption reading "Most Militant Negro Woman In The South".[6] In 1956, Hurley helped to prepare the case of Autherine Lucy to be allowed to attend the University of Alabama.[1] Hurley's efforts were met with open hostility and she suffered from fatigue and weight loss. Her house was attacked and she received obscene telephone calls. Following a riot at the University of Alabama campus, black taxi drivers offered protection, circling her home.[2]
Hurley was forced to flee Alabama in the night on June 1, 1956 after the state barred the NAACP from operating there. She moved to Atlanta where she opened a regional office four months later. The headquarters became a focal point for civil rights organizers and Hurley worked alongside Vernon Jordan. She also assisted Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Hamilton E. Holmes in gaining admission to the University of Georgia in 1961.[1] Following the assassination of Medgar Evers in 1963, Hurley convinced his widow Myrlie to have him interred at Arlington National Cemetery.[2]
Death and legacy
Hurley retired on March 31, 1978 and served as president of United Methodist Women. She died on August 9, 1980 in Atlanta.[1] The Chattanooga–Hamilton County NAACP hosts an annual Ruby Hurley Image Awards.[7] In 2009 Hurley was featured alongside Ella Baker on a 42 cent stamp.[8]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "Civil rights queen, Ruby Hurley dies at 70". The Afro American. August 23, 1980.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Lawson, Steven F. (2004). "HURLEY, Ruby". Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume 5. Cambridge, Mass. [u.a.]: Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press. pp. 318–320. ISBN 978-0-674-01488-6.
- ↑ Hamlin, Françoise N. Crossroads at Clarksdale: The Black Freedom Struggle in the Mississippi Delta After World War II. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. pp. 18–19. ISBN 978-0-8078-3549-4.
- ↑ Williams, Horace Randall; Beard, Ben (2009). This Day in Civil Rights History. Montgomery, AL: NewSouth Books. p. 134. ISBN 978-1-58835-241-5.
- ↑ "1973 interview with Howell Raines". The Lynching of Emmett Till: A Documentary Narrative. University of Virginia Press. 2002. pp. 264–265. ISBN 978-0-8139-3458-7.
- ↑ "Most Militant Negro Woman In The South". Jet (Johnson Publishing Company). October 6, 1955. ISSN 0021-5996.
- ↑ "NAACP Ruby Hurley Images Awards Set For Oct. 8". The Chattanoogan. September 26, 2011.
- ↑ Carter, Terry (February 21, 2013). "Black History Month: 23 Civil Rights Activists Honored On U.S. Stamps". Vibe.
Further reading
- Raines, Howell (1977). My Soul is Rested: Movement Days in the Deep South Remembered. New York: Putnam. ISBN 978-0-399-11853-1.
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