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By SHELLEY M. SHOCKLEY Call and Post Cleveland City Editor if asked. ‘When did the Civil Rights movement begin? , many would respond 1964, the year the Civil Rights Act was passed, some would respond. 1957- the year the Civil Rights Act, affirming the right to vote was enacted, and some would even state 1968, the year of the Poor People's March, yet the answer to that question, would really take one back to the 1600's when the first slaves were brought to this country. In that span of time, some 390 odd years, there have been many leaders in the fight for freedom, some that did not receive the same notoriety of your Martin Luther King. Rosa Parks, or Medgar Evers. George T.Downing, Francis Grimke’, and Josephine Ruffin also played a significant, if not national, role in the Civil Rights movement. George T. Down, was born in New York City in 1819. As a youngster, Down ing and friends were taunted by whites as they went to and from school. At times, the jeeling was not only verbal, but also resulted in stones being thrown. In an effort to keep their children safe, Downing's parents as well as other parents attempted to protect them by ac companying them to school. Downing, however, chose to organize a group of Black boys to take on their white an tagonists. At the tender age of 14, Downing es tablished a literary society to discuss is sues pertaining to the Black causez later the group stopped celebrating the Fourth of July noting, “the Declaration of Inde pendence was to Black America a perfect mockery. Feeling very strongly about the plight of Black Americans, Downing, while still a teenager, participated in the Under ground Railroad. His militancy also landed him in jail, after he was arrested for breaking a fugitive slave out of a New York jail After moving to Rhode Island, Down ing fought from 1857-1869 to establish integration in federally-funded schools and he helped repeal a law, requiring Black to own $25 worth of property to be eligible to vote. Not one to discriminate, Downing also fought a similar law affect ing Irish immigrants Further exemplifying Downing's belief that all men should be treated equal, he managed a restaurant in the House of Representatives and established a policy to serve whites and Blacks. Anyone having a problem with this policy, was directed to him. Francis Grimke was born in Charles ton, South Carolina in 1850. He was the son of a white plantation,slaveholder and the slave servant of the household. At the age of two, Grimke’s father died, leav ing the family in the hands of his eldest son. Grimkes mother, Nancy Weston, bore three sons of her slaveowner Henry Grimke. Throughout his childhood, Grimke lived as a de facto free person, but at the age of 10, his half-brother attempted to enslave him. Grimke ran away and joined the army, where he served as a valet to a Confederate officer for two years, before being found by his brother. He was sent to a Charleston workhouse upon hih capture, but became deathly ill and was allowed to return to his mother's home. He was later sold and forced to work as a servant until the end of the Civil War When Grimke was freed, a white abolitionist arranged for him to enter Lin coln University, where he graduated with honors in 1870. He later attended Howard University where he studied law, before entering the Princeton Theologi cal Seminary, from which he graduated in 1878 Throughout his adult life, and as a minister, Rev. Grimke used his pulpit and his stature to denounce the hypocrisy of American life as well as that of the Church In 1908, after the Springfield, Illinois race riots, Grimke joined other concerned Black and white leaders in forming the NAACP. In effort to help others, Rev. Grimke gave financial support and gifts to Howard and Lincoln Universities to help Black youths attain a higher educa tion Leading the early fight for women was Josephine Ruffin, who in 1894 started the Women's New Era Club, which later led to the organization of the National Federation of Afro-American Women. The aim of the club was to demonstrate the existence of a large growing class of intelligent, cultured Black women, and to refute public charges of ignorance and immorality. In 1896, the organization merged with a rival group to form the National Association of Colored Women. Ruffin was the daughter of John and Eliza St. Pierre, both of mixed ancestry including French, English, Indian and African royalty. At the age of 16, she married George L. Ruffin.
Newspaper Details
Cincinnati Call and Post
Cincinnati, Ohio, US
Thu, Feb 13, 1997
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Chad A.
USA 20 Sep 2025
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