George Lewis Ruffin

George Lewis Ruffin
Ruffin as a municipal judge
Associate Justice of the Boston Municipal Court
In office
1883–1886
Appointed byBenjamin 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 byNahum Morrison
Cyrus A. Page
Francis H. Peabody
John Osborne Jr.
Succeeded byJohn 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 byLinus Child
John J. Smith
Succeeded byFrederic W. Lincoln Jr.
Charles R. Codman
John J. Smith
Personal details
Born(1834-12-22)December 22, 1834
Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
DiedNovember 19, 1886(1886-11-19) (aged 51)
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
(m. 1858)
Children5, including Florida
EducationHarvard Law School (1869)

George Lewis Ruffin (December 16, 1834 – November 19, 1886) was an 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.[1] 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.

  1. ^ Stephanie Knight, "George Lewis Ruffin", Black Past, accessed 14 April 2012