George Lewis Ruffin
George Lewis Ruffin | |
|---|---|
Ruffin as a municipal judge | |
| Associate Justice of the Boston Municipal Court | |
| In office 1883–1886 | |
| Appointed by | Benjamin Franklin Butler |
| Member of the Boston Common Council from Ward 9 | |
| In office January 3, 1876 – January 7, 1878 Serving with Uriel Crocker, Curis Guild Sr. (1876), and Robert Means Thompson (1877) | |
| Preceded by | Nahum Morrison Cyrus A. Page Francis H. Peabody John Osborne Jr. |
| Succeeded by | John J. Smith |
| Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from the 6th Suffolk district | |
| In office January 5, 1870 – January 2, 1872 Serving with Harvey Jewell and Hugh Flood | |
| Preceded by | Linus Child John J. Smith |
| Succeeded by | Frederic W. Lincoln Jr. Charles R. Codman John J. Smith |
| Personal details | |
| Born | December 22, 1834 Richmond, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | November 19, 1886 (aged 51) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 5, including Florida |
| Education | Harvard Law School (1869) |
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George Lewis Ruffin (December 16, 1834 – November 19, 1886) was an African-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. Ruffin was elected in 1870 to the Massachusetts Legislature. In 1883, he was appointed by the governor Benjamin Franklin Butler as a judge to the Municipal Court, Charlestown district in Boston, making him the first African American judge in the United States. He married 16 year-old Josephine St. Pierre in 1858. Florida Ruffin Ridley was one of their children.