Hometown History #30:: Norfolk County Claims Pantheon of “Distinguished African Americans"

Above, Booker T. Washington, a part-time resident of Norfolk County

Thanks to Norfolk County Register of Deeds William P. O’Donnell, and his recent appearance on a segment broadcast by Quincy Access Television commemorating Black History Month, we can join in recognizing distinguished African Americans with ties to Norfolk County.

“There are a number of prominent African Americans with ties to Norfolk County”, noted the Register, “ranging from world-renowned figures like Booker T. Washington, who summered in Weymouth to lesser known but important figures such as Florida Ruffin Ridley, a nineteenth century civil rights activist from Brookline, one of the first black public schoolteachers in Boston and editor of the Women’s Era, the country’s first newspaper established by and for African American women.”

Some of the other African Americans mentioned by Register O’Donnell in the segment include historic figures like William B. Gould, after whom a park in Dedham was recently renamed, Henry W. Diggs from Norwood, former Boston Celtic and Sharon resident Sam Jones and more contemporary individuals like Randolph’s Audie Cornish, a reporter and host on National Public Radio, William (“Mo”) Cowan from Stoughton who served in the United States Senate [Governor Deval Patrick appointed him on an interim basis to fill the vacancy left by fellow Democrat John Kerry, who resigned to become U.S. Secretary of State]. Former Governor Deval Patrick, himself, was a resident of Milton from 1989 to 2016.

“I appreciate Mark Crosby and the folks at Quincy Access Television providing me the opportunity to expound on some of the rich history of Norfolk County and honor some of the contributions of African Americans from our communities here in Norfolk County that have been a part of that history”, stated Register O’Donnell.

To view the QATV segment, go to the following link:

https://www.qatv.org/episode/norfolk-county-registry-deeds-celebrates-black-history-month

Booker T. Washington

Booker T. Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African American community and of the contemporary black elite. Washington was from the last generation of black American leaders born into slavery and became the leading voice of the former slaves and their descendants. They were newly oppressed in the South by disenfranchisement and the Jim Crow discriminatory laws enacted in the post-Reconstruction Southern states in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Washington was a key proponent of African-American businesses and one of the founders of the National Negro Business League. His base was the Tuskegee Institute, a normal school, later a historically black college in Tuskegee, Alabama at which he served as principal. -- WIKIPEDIA

Florida Ruffin Ridley

Florida Yates Ruffin was born on January 29, 1861, to a distinguished Boston family. Her father, George Lewis Ruffin, was the first African-American graduate of Harvard Law School and the first black judge in the United States. Her mother, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, was a noted African-American writer, civil rights leader, and suffragist. The family lived on Charles Street in the West End. Ridley attended Boston public schools and graduated from Boston Teachers' College in 1882. She was the second African American to teach in the Boston public schools (the first was Elizabeth Smith, who taught at the Phillips School in the 1870s).[4] She taught at the Grant School from 1880 until her marriage in 1888 to Ulysses Archibald Ridley, owner of a tailoring business in downtown Boston. The couple moved to Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1896, where they may have been the town's first African-American homeowners.Ridley was one of the founders of the Second Unitarian Church in Brookline.She and her husband had a daughter, Constance, and a son, Ulysses A. Ridley, Jr. – WIKIPEDIA

William B. Gould

William and Cornelia Gould and Children

William Benjamin Gould (November 18, 1837 – May 25, 1923) was a former slave and veteran of the American Civil War, serving in the U.S. Navy. His diary is one of only a few written during the Civil War by former slaves that has survived, and the only by a formerly enslaved sailor. -- WIKIPEDIA