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Ruffner-Washington Connection Restored; Descendants Visit W&L Descendants of Washington College President Henry Ruffner, an alumnus who led the later renamed Washington and Lee University from 1836 to 1848, visited the University June 13 as part of their national Family Reunion.
With the group was Mrs. Edith Washington Johnson, the granddaughter of Booker T. Washington, the famous black leader and educator. As a young man, Washington worked in a Ruffner family coal mine "before he was emancipated," said Mrs. Johnson, 77, a Tuskegee, Ala. native who resides in Wilberforce, Ohio. Given his rise from slavery to national prominence, Washington is considered the most influential black leader in America from about 1880 to 1910, during which he served as an adviser to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Like her grandfather, who founded Alabama's Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, which later became Tuskegee University, Mrs. Johnson is a retired Central State University (Wilberforce, Ohio) administrator. She served in positions including admissions director, financial aid director and associate dean of students. Mrs. Johnson was invited to join the Ruffner reunions two years ago after Joseph Wilson Ruffner, an avid family historian from Huntsville, Ala., discovered a reference to Booker T. Washington while doing research and found Mrs. Johnson via the Internet. Together, more than 125 years later, they restored the Ruffner-Washington connection. Edith Washington Johnson also is a descendant of George Washington Carver, one of the country's first, renowned black scientists. "I tell students I am a living connection to history," she said. |
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Page updated
Thursday, June 21, 2001 |
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