In 1894, when most black Americans were uneducated, struggling to make sure their families were provided for, and striving to obtain and keep jobs, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, a wealthy black Bostonian, began publishing the Woman's Era, a national magazine. The Woman's Era was established for educated black women and was an outlet for their writing. Black education, cultural pride, cultural advancement, and personal and community improvement were among topics covered in the publication. The magazine was not frivolous; its founding marked a distinctive political and literary period for black women.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, 31 August 1842, Josephine St. Pierre was the sixth child of John and Eliza Matilda Mehenick St. Pierre. Her father was a free black of mixed Indian, English, and French ancestry. Her mother was a native of Cornwall, England. She began her early education in Salem, Massachusetts, elementary schools because her parents did not want her...