Ruth B. Loving

Ruth B. Loving (May 27, 1914-November 25, 2014) was an American activist. She has been called "the mother of civil rights" in Springfield, Massachusetts.^[1]

Ruth B. Loving
Born	Ruth B. Stewart (1914-05-27)May 27, 1914 Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	November 25, 2014(2014-11-25) (aged 100) Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Massachusetts Amherst
Spouse	Minor Loving (m. 1935)
Children	3

Early life

Loving was born in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania,^[2] the youngest of seven children of Alexander and Emma Stewart.^[3] Around 1918, she and her family moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where her father worked at the Winchester gun factory.^[4] As a young child, Loving wasn't fully aware of racial discrimination, due to the lack of overt racial discrimination in New Haven, but she later became a youth member of the NAACP.^[2] She attended the Gregory Street School, where she was the only girl to join their Fife and Drum Corp,^[2] and Hillhouse High School, where she studied French.^[5]

Adult life

After marrying Minor Loving in 1935, the couple moved to Boston with her husband, where Ruth Loving worked as a singer and her husband worked for a dry cleaning business.^[4][6] The family moved to Springfield, Massachusetts in 1939, after Minor Loving's job was relocated.^[4] Ruth Loving joined the city's chapter of the NAACP in 1942.^[1][7]

In the early 1940s, Loving also began playing with a musical group, Carl Loving and the Trio.^[6]

After the Second World War began, Loving volunteered to work as an entertainer for the United Services Organizations in Chicopee.^[6][7] In August 1943,^[6] she joined the Massachusetts Women’s Defense Corps, a unit of the National Guard. She learned morse code and sent government communications from a secret facility in Springfield.^[3][7]

She founded the PTA of Chester Street Junior High, and served as its president in the mid-1950s.^[4][7]

In the 1960s, Loving became president of the Springfield NAACP and founded the Springfield Negro Post.^[1][4] In 1965, she met both Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks when they visited Springfield.^[1] Following King's assassination, then-Mayor Frank H. Freedman made Loving chairperson of the city's first King memorial observance.^[3] For the observance, she organized a choir drawn from churches across the city.^[8] Following the event, the 'Freedom Choir' remained active and continued to perform.^[8]

In 1969, she began working in local radio;^[4] she hosted a radio show on WMAS-AM and FM until 2011.^[3] That same year, she became the first Black woman certified candidate for the Springfield City Council.^[9]

In 1988, Loving earned a bachelor's degree in Community Education and Media at University of Massachusetts Amherst.^[10]

In 1995, Loving served as a delegate to the White House Council on Aging.^[7] In 1998, Loving initiated the tradition of raising the Black American Heritage Flag in front of Springfield's City Hall during Black History Month.^[1]

In her later years, she served as a delegate to the Springfield Council on Aging.^[1]

In 2008, she campaigned locally for Barack Obama's presidential campaign.^[1]

In 2011, she advocated for the reopening of the Mason Square Library.^[1]

Loving died of a heart attack at age 100, while in rehabilitation at Wingate Nursing Home in Springfield following a broken hip.^[3]

Honors and awards

In 1994, Loving received the Eyes on the Prize award from WGBY-TV.^[1]

The Springfield Theological Society conferred Loving an Honorary Doctor of Humanities Degree in recognition of her contributions to the city.^[7]

In 2018, UMASS Amherst began a scholarship in Loving's name, which aims to help fund adult students returning to college later in life.^[10][11]

Personal life

Loving had 3 children.^[7] She considered herself a Democrat.^[1]