Josephine Beall Willson Bruce (1853-1923)

Josephine Leall Willson Bruce was an educator and activist who worked closely with Booker T. Washington. She was the daughter of a wealthy dentist, Dr. Joseph Willson, and a musician, Elizabeth Harnett Willson. Josephine became the first African-American on the faculty of a Cleveland public school. In 1878 she married Blanche K. Bruce of Mississippi, the only black U.S. senator at the time. Living in Washington D.C., Willson Bruce organized the National Organization of Afro-American Women, which grew into the National Association of Colored Women. After the 1898 death of her husband, Willson Bruce became the dean of women at Tuskegee Institute and managed her family’s cotton plantations in the South. In 1895, Willson Bruce was finally successful in her fight for the passage of a resolution to establish an annual Negro History Celebration Observation, which inspired Carter G. Woodson to create Black History Month.