wfn.org | AME's Ruby Boyd blazed a trail that offers hope for the future

[George Conklin <gconklin@igc.org>]

 AME's Ruby Boyd blazed a trail that offers hope for the future

NOTE: This feature on Ruby Boyd is the first in a series of articles 
on women and men in National Council of Churches member communions 
who were not necessarily professional church staff but made 
significant contributions to our communities of faith. Please send 
suggestions of persons who made a difference in your community to 
Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office), 646-853-4212 (cell).

Philadelphia, March 20, 2009 -- Ruby Boyd, a lifelong member of 
Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, 
paused during celebrations of her 90th birthday March 18 to look back 
on her life.

As a librarian, Ms. Boyd believes in carefully maintaining the 
records of the past so you can measure how far you've come. She has 
blazed a lot of trails in 90 years. She was the first African 
American librarian in Philadelphia's Free Library, and later claimed 
the same distinction in the city's public schools. In her long life, 
she opened many doors for those who followed.

Ms. Boyd was born in Philadelphia to parents who had moved to the 
city from South Carolina in the early 20th century "great migration" 
of African Americans seeking employment and a new life in the North. 
"My mother was the daughter of ministers in the South and she joined 
Mother Bethel immediately, so I've been at the church for 90 years," she said.

Mother Bethel is the birthplace of the African Methodist Episcopal 
Church. It was founded in 1794 by Richard Allen, a black Methodist 
minister. The church is built on Sixth and Lombard Streets, the 
nation's oldest continuously-owned property by African Americans.

The world in which Ruby Boyd was born seems remote. Two years before 
her birth, Philadelphia Mayor Thomas B. Smith was arrested and 
charged with "complicity" in the death of a man who died in primary 
election riots that erupted over control of one of the city's 
districts. The New York Times reported that the violence "showed 
casualties of 1 man killed, 50 wounded, 2,000 terrorized, and 
2,000,000 disgusted." Smith still retained a firm hold on his office 
in 1919 when Ms. Boyd was born.

That was also the year of the "Black Sox" scandal in which eight 
members of the Chicago White Sox, including "Shoeless Joe" Jackson, 
were accused of throwing the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. 
Too, the country was still rejoicing over the successful conclusion 
of the First World War and President Woodrow Wilson was exhausting 
himself in a failing national campaign to win Senate approval for 
U.S. membership in the League of Nations. Wilson, recorded as a 
"Progressive" in high school history books, lifted no fingers to help 
the cause of racial justice; in fact, the Virginia-born president 
ordered the segregation of lunch counters and other public buildings 
in Washington. By 1919, the status of race relations in the U.S. had 
remained substantially unchanged since the Civil War.

Not much had changed by 1940 when Ms. Boyd was seeking a position as 
a librarian.

"That was during the Depression," she recalled. "I didn't want to go 
away, I wanted to go to library school in Philadelphia. I applied to 
Drexel (then Drexel Institute)."

She paused to make sure her words were understood. "There was a lot 
of discrimination in Philadelphia in those days," she said. "We 
couldn't even go to restaurants. Drexel required that a picture be 
attached to applications, and when I posted my picture they 
immediately responded."

The response was that Ms. Boyd could not be accepted because the 
course required field work in a public library.

"It was discrimination, of course," she said. "I went to Atlanta to 
get my degree."

While she was in Atlanta, a Philadelphia elementary school principal 
named Dr. John Brodhead pressed the issue.

"When I came back to Philadelphia he had fought a battle against 
discrimination and as a result the Free Library advertised for a 
Negro," she said. "I was able to be the first black librarian in Philadelphia."

She laughed gently. "I made the front page of a black newspaper at 
the time," she said. "It was quite a breaking down of discrimination 
and I later became the first black librarian in the school district, too."

In fact, when Ms. Boyd retired from the school district three decades 
later, she was supervisor of libraries in two sub- districts.

"It was a wonderful, wonderful career," she said.

Today, Ms. Boyd has turned her energies to the history of Mother 
Bethel, where she developed the church's internationally known museum.

The church's senior pastor, the Rev. Dr. Mark Kelly Tyler, praises 
Ms. Boyd's efforts and recommended her as a prominent example of the 
National Council of Churches '"Friends Who Have Made a Difference in 
Our Lives" Web series.

"She has been a stalwart member of Mother Bethel all of her life," 
Dr. Tyler says. "She has been one of the leading members of the laity 
to organize our archive and church museum. Her efforts have been 
highly celebrated in our local church, but have gone unnoticed by the 
larger community."

"That's my claim to fame at Mother Bethel, that I developed the 
present historical church," Ms. Boyd said, laughing again. The 
history of the church, she believes, is worth proclaiming.

"This (the present church) is the fourth building on the spot, the 
oldest parcel of real estate owned by African Americans in the United 
States," she said. "It was purchased in 1791 by Richard Allen and 
what we have in the museum are artifacts and furniture from the first 
building up to the present time. We have historic documents in our 
archival room that we are setting up now -- minutes, books, letters 
from many, many years ago. We have quite a wonderful museum here."

The museum is open Sunday for an hour after services, and from 10 - 3 
p.m. Tuesday through Saturday by appointment. Call 215-925-0616.

Ruby Boyd has spent most of her 90 years paving the way for others 
and chronicling a sometimes bitter past. But her outlook on the 
future could not be more optimistic.

"The election of Barack Obama as president of the United States is 
just amazing to those who experienced the ugliness of discrimination 
and hatred," she said. "Most of us who have lived as long as I have 
experienced that negative  unpleasantness and to see what happened in 
the United States today is so wonderful -- it's a new spirit in our 
country now."

Times may be difficult in 2009, but that will change, she says.

"I definitely have hope for the future. I am so thankful to God that 
I have lived to experience this present situation in the country. And 
I just see a bright future for us, don't you? I think about those who 
have gone on before me, and how surprised they would be if they could 
come back alive. I'm sure it's going to continue and get even better. 
Even though we're going through what I call a 'mini depression' now, 
it's going to be all right."

> National Council of Churches Home Page