''The Woman's Era'' was the first national newspaper published by and for black women in the United States. Originally established as a monthly Boston newspaper, it became distributed nationally in 1894 and ran until January 1897, with Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin as editor and publisher. ''The Woman's Era'' played an important role in the national African American women's club movement.

History

In 1892, Boston activist Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin founded the Woman's Era Club, an advocacy group for black women, with the help of her daughter, Florida Ruffin Ridley, and educator Maria Louise Baldwin. It was the first black women's club in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, and one of the first in the country. Its members, prominent black women from the Boston area, devoted their efforts to education,

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

, and race-related issues such as anti-lynching reform. Its slogan was "Help to make the world better". ''The Woman's Era'', an illustrated monthly publication, was the club's newspaper. Ruffin served as its editor and publisher; Ridley was also an editor.Different historians give different start dates for both the Woman's Era Club and the newspaper. According to Ruffin's descendant, Maude T. Jenkins, the club was founded in 1892. Several sources give 1897 as the last year of Ruffin's editorship but do not specify when the newspaper was discontinued. Electronic text is available online for the years 1894-1897.

This publication featured records of the Woman's Era Club activity, as well as news from other black women's clubs located all over the United States. Advertisements for local social events such as carnivals, rosebud teas, and bake sales are placed throughout the newspaper alongside the promotion of vendor goods for music, courses, clothing, real estate, among other things. ''The Woman's Era, vol.1, no.1 (March 24, 1894)''. Ruffin, Josephine St. Pierre; Ridley, Florida R. (Florida Ruffin); Baldwin, Maria (1894-03). The paper also contained articles such as "Club Gossip", "Social Etiquette", and "Health and Beauty from Exercise", the ''Woman's Era'' published news about women's suffrage in Colorado (the second state to give women the vote), interviews with activists such as Victoria Earle Matthews and

Ida B. Wells Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931) was an American investigative journalist, sociologist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advance ...

, a series called "Eminent Women" that included a profile of

Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, – March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and social activist. After escaping slavery, Tubman made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people, including her family and friends, us ...

, and criticism of other activists who disappointed them, such as

Frances Willard Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard (September 28, 1839 – February 17, 1898) was an American educator, temperance reformer, and women's suffragist. Willard became the national president of Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 187 ...

and Albion W. Tourgée. A May 1, 1894 editorial, "How to Stop Lynching", posed this question to readers:

In his very admirable and searching address delivered in this city, April 16th, judge Albion W. Tourgee proposed as a remedy to prevent the
lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of i ...
of colored people at the South, that the country where lynchings occur be compelled by law to pension the wife and children of the murdered man. This, he said would make murder costly and in self defense the local authorities would put a stop to it. At first blush, this is an attractive suggestion. But why not hang the murderers? Why make a distinction between the murderers of white men and the murderers of colored men?

The editor concluded that the only solution was for the federal government to intervene:

It can go to war, spend millions of dollars and sacrifice thousands of lives to avenge the death of a naturalized white citizen slain by a foreign government on foreign soil, but cannot spend a cent to protect a loyal, native-born colored American murdered without provocation by native or alien in
Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...
. Shame on such a government! The administration in power is ''particeps criminis'' with the murderers. It can stop lynching, and until it does so, it has on its hands the innocent blood of its murdered citizens.

In 1895, Ruffin organized The First National Conference of the Colored Women of America, during which the National Federation of Afro-American Women was created. ''The Woman's Era'' became the national news outlet of the club women.

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External links

''The Woman's Era''
Issues digitized by Boston Public Library.

History

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See also

Notes

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External links

Further reading