and her three sisters grew up among the African-American elite.Her parents emphasized education and accomplishment-her mama was both a skilled musician and a music teacher-Josephine trained to be a teacher after graduating from Cleveland's Central High School in 1871.
She then served as one of the first African-American in Cleveland's integrated elementary schools.
Josephine met her the U.S.senator Blanche Kelso Bruce in June 1876,when he traveled to Ohio for the Republican National Convention.
The two corresponded and became friends,suggests though the family
biographer Lawrence Otis Graham suggests that the Willson family had reservations about Blanche's slave background and color.(The Willsons were quite light skinned ; the March 15 1883 Christian Recorder-echoing much of the press of the day-said,for example,Josephine was "so light in complexion that no one would suspect her race.")Nonetheless,the pair was married in a small home on June 24 1878.Both the ceremony and the couple's subsequent four-month honeymoon in Europe garnered some national press attention as did white Washington's hand wringing over how to welcome (or not welcome) an African-American senator's bride. Still,the the most liberal among Washington's whites,as well as a small group of prominent African-Americans,formed a circle that aided Josephine Bruce's Washington "debut- a New Year's Day gathering that she hosted on January 1 1879.
The Bruces had one son, Roscoe Conking Bruce Sr.(named after the New York senator who had escorted Blanche at his swearing-in)in April 1879 and amassed significant real estate, including homes in Washington,as well a plantation in Blanche's home state Mississippi.By the time Blanch left the Senate in 1880,the young family was firmly established among the tiny African-American artistocracy in Washington.Blanche was appointed register of the U.S.Treasury in 1881,the 1880s and early 1890s were complex times for the Bruces.
Blanched jockeyed to keep both a Mississippi power base and a national role in the face of Reconstruction's fall, andJosephine spilt her time between serving as the senator's wife and living with her family,who had moved to Indianapolis.After Blanche lost his appointment his appointment as register of the U.S. Treasury in 1885,he,too, moved to Indiana,the Bruces moved back to Washington in March in 1888.He was appointed Washington's recorder of deeds in 1890.
Josephine began selectively working with African American and women's group while her husband was still in the Senate.She worked,
for example with the Washington African American exhibit at the World's Industrial and Cotton States Centennial Exposition in New Orleans in 1884 & 1885 and served as convention president at the meeting of the National Federation of Afro-American in Boston in 1895.
She became much more active in the African-American clubwoman's
movement in the late 1890's especially after so,Roscoe,moved north
to attend Phillips Exeter in late 1896.She helped found the Booklover's
Club,and her initial work with with the Colored Women's League (with Mary Eliza Church Terrell & Helen Appo Cook),as well as her ties to
Josephine ST.Pierre Ruffin, led a lifelong association with the National Assonation of Colored Women (NACW). Blanche twelve years Josephine's senior died March 17 1898.The next year Booker T.Washington offered the role of lady principal (In essence,dean of women) at Tuskegee University in Tuskegee,Alabama,and she was named one of two national vice presidents of the NACW.
Though she worked at Tuskegee until 1902-and her son also took a job after he graduated from Harvard-some evidence suggests that she found the students and surrounds at the rural southern school foreign and uncomfortable.She was never admitted to Booker T.Washington's inner circle,and tensions between the two likely grew when she ran against Booker's wife, Margaret Murray Washington,Both the ceremony and the couple's subsequent four-month honeymoon in Europe garnered some national press,attention,as did white Washington's hand-wringing over how to welcome (or not welcome) an African American senator's bride.Still, the most liberal among Washington's whites,as well as a small group of prominent African Americans,formed a circle that aided Josephine "debut " - a New Year's Day gathering she hosted on January 1 1879.
She then served as one of the first African-American in Cleveland's integrated elementary schools.
Josephine met her the U.S.senator Blanche Kelso Bruce in June 1876,when he traveled to Ohio for the Republican National Convention.
The two corresponded and became friends,suggests though the family
biographer Lawrence Otis Graham suggests that the Willson family had reservations about Blanche's slave background and color.(The Willsons were quite light skinned ; the March 15 1883 Christian Recorder-echoing much of the press of the day-said,for example,Josephine was "so light in complexion that no one would suspect her race.")Nonetheless,the pair was married in a small home on June 24 1878.Both the ceremony and the couple's subsequent four-month honeymoon in Europe garnered some national press attention as did white Washington's hand wringing over how to welcome (or not welcome) an African-American senator's bride. Still,the the most liberal among Washington's whites,as well as a small group of prominent African-Americans,formed a circle that aided Josephine Bruce's Washington "debut- a New Year's Day gathering that she hosted on January 1 1879.
The Bruces had one son, Roscoe Conking Bruce Sr.(named after the New York senator who had escorted Blanche at his swearing-in)in April 1879 and amassed significant real estate, including homes in Washington,as well a plantation in Blanche's home state Mississippi.By the time Blanch left the Senate in 1880,the young family was firmly established among the tiny African-American artistocracy in Washington.Blanche was appointed register of the U.S.Treasury in 1881,the 1880s and early 1890s were complex times for the Bruces.
Blanched jockeyed to keep both a Mississippi power base and a national role in the face of Reconstruction's fall, andJosephine spilt her time between serving as the senator's wife and living with her family,who had moved to Indianapolis.After Blanche lost his appointment his appointment as register of the U.S. Treasury in 1885,he,too, moved to Indiana,the Bruces moved back to Washington in March in 1888.He was appointed Washington's recorder of deeds in 1890.
Josephine began selectively working with African American and women's group while her husband was still in the Senate.She worked,
for example with the Washington African American exhibit at the World's Industrial and Cotton States Centennial Exposition in New Orleans in 1884 & 1885 and served as convention president at the meeting of the National Federation of Afro-American in Boston in 1895.
She became much more active in the African-American clubwoman's
movement in the late 1890's especially after so,Roscoe,moved north
to attend Phillips Exeter in late 1896.She helped found the Booklover's
Club,and her initial work with with the Colored Women's League (with Mary Eliza Church Terrell & Helen Appo Cook),as well as her ties to
Josephine ST.Pierre Ruffin, led a lifelong association with the National Assonation of Colored Women (NACW). Blanche twelve years Josephine's senior died March 17 1898.The next year Booker T.Washington offered the role of lady principal (In essence,dean of women) at Tuskegee University in Tuskegee,Alabama,and she was named one of two national vice presidents of the NACW.
Though she worked at Tuskegee until 1902-and her son also took a job after he graduated from Harvard-some evidence suggests that she found the students and surrounds at the rural southern school foreign and uncomfortable.She was never admitted to Booker T.Washington's inner circle,and tensions between the two likely grew when she ran against Booker's wife, Margaret Murray Washington,Both the ceremony and the couple's subsequent four-month honeymoon in Europe garnered some national press,attention,as did white Washington's hand-wringing over how to welcome (or not welcome) an African American senator's bride.Still, the most liberal among Washington's whites,as well as a small group of prominent African Americans,formed a circle that aided Josephine "debut " - a New Year's Day gathering she hosted on January 1 1879.
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