Born: 21 June 1866, United States
Died: 24 February 1947
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
Social reformer and clubwoman Ruth L. Bennett founded and led a variety of organizations in Pennsylvania. She served as the first president of her local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Chester and as president of Pennsylvania State Federation of Negro Women’s Clubs. To support African-American women moving to the area as part of the Great Migration of thousands of African-Americans from southern states to northern ones, she also started the Ruth L. Bennett Improvement Club, the Ruth L. Bennett Community House for Colored Women and Girls and the Wilson Nursery.
Bennett herself was born in Alabama, moving to Pennsylvania as an adult with her Baptist preacher husband. But many of the Great Migrators were young women on their own without support systems. Organizations like the Improvement Club offered material support like clothing and educational courses, while the Community House provided shelter for the women, with the Nursery housing orphans. By 1940, the Bennett House had housed more than 2,000 African-American women and girls.