Ruth Batson, Boston, civil rights and education activist
Ruth Batson, August 3, 1921-
October 28, 2003
Born in Boston to Jamaican immigrants, Ruth, an American civil rights activist and outspoken advocate of equal education spoke out about the desegregation of Boston Public Schools. In the early 1960s, she challenged the Boston School Committee, charging that Boston Public Schools were largely segregated. Ruth highlighted that schools with majority black student populations often had poor quality facilities when compared to the facilities at schools with majority white student enrollment.
More recently, Batson had directed the revitalized Museum of African American History in Beacon Hill, stepping down in 1990.
Her financial support for medical students at Boston University School of Medicine, the school, under the leadership of Dr. Aram Chobanian, established the Ruth Batson Scholarship in 1997. Since that time, the school has awarded more than US$500,000 in scholarships to 40 Boston University minority medical students, including four MD and PhD students. Each year, Batson visited the medical center to have lunch with the Batson Scholars, hear their life's stories and share her experiences, especially with the health care system in America