Born: 29 October 1853, United States
Died: 15 February 1923
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Josephine Beall Willson
Women’s rights activist and socialite Josephine Beall Willson Bruce worked extensively for the National Organization of Afro-American Women, including as editor of the organization’s National Notes, in which she promoted improving education for African-American women. She also supported the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in its early years, and was an advocate for temperance.
In addition to her time as a senator’s wife, socialite and political hostess in Washington, D.C., she was also the first African-American teacher in Cleveland’s public school system in the 1870s, and later principal at Tuskegee University in Alabama from 1899 to 1902.