Ruth Apilado

Ruth Moselle Apilado (née Mays; April 30, 1908 – August 15, 2021) was an American newspaper editor, novelist, anti-racism campaigner for African American civil rights, magazine founder, teacher, and supercentenarian who founded America's Intercultural Magazine (AIM). Born during the Jim Crow era, she was an African American anti-racism activist for civil and political rights.^[1]

Ruth Apilado
Born	Ruth Mosselle Mays (1908-04-30)April 30, 1908 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	(2021-08-15)August 15, 2021 (aged 113 years, 107 days) Federal Way, Washington, U.S.
Education	Chicago State University
Occupations	Newspaper editor novelist anti-racism campaigner for African American civil rights magazine founder teacher
Known for	Founder of America Intercultural Magazine
Spouse	Inosencio Apilado
Children	1
Relatives	Lu Palmer (second cousin)

Early life

Apilado was born on April 30, 1908, in Chicago, Illinois. Her parents were Stewart and Clara (née Whetsel) Mays.^[2] Her maternal grandmother had emigrated from Canada to Ohio, and was partly indigenous. Her paternal great-grandfather was a slave owner in Virginia.^[3]

Apilado attended McKinley High School, which closed in 1954.^[3] She became a teacher in 1928, after graduating from Chicago Normal College (now Chicago State University).^[4]

Newspaper publishing and novel

She began her journalistic career in 1942, when she briefly worked as an editor for the newly created Negro Youth Photo Scripts Magazine.^[5] In 1945, she wrote a letter to the editor expressing her criticism of Richard Wright's memoir Black Boy, stating that it was an inaccurate depiction of the typical childhood of African-Americans.^[6] In 1950, Apilado published a novel called The Joneses, which was about the hardships of a black family living in Chicago.^[7]

Magazine founder

After retiring from teaching in 1973, Apilado founded America's Intercultural Magazine (AIM), a quarterly-published journal that set out to "bridge the gap between races, cultures, and religions."^[8] Already in 1948, an initiative of creating such a journal (called Freedom Press) took place, when she requested the newspaper Berkeley Daily Gazette to assist her and her associates with marketing.^[9] Her anti-racism stance was reflected in the editorials that she wrote; for example, she praised the activist and church leader Willa Saunders Jones in 1975.^[10] On June 16, 1990, she participated as a panelist at a writers' conference in Elgin Community College in Illinois.^[11]

Personal life

Apilado's husband was Filipino-American Inosencio Apilado. Their son, Myron Apilado, was the vice-president of minority affairs at University of Washington until the year 2000, as well as an editor of AIM.^[12] On August 26, 2004, at age 96, she was interviewed by Larry Crowe of The History Makers, a project that produces oral history material by African-Americans.^[2] Her second cousin was the reporter, newspaper journalist and radio host Lu Palmer.^[3] She turned 113 years old in April 2021^[13] and died on 15 August later that year.^[14]