Ruby Grant Martin
{{short description|American government official}}
{{Hatnote|For the American football player with a similar name, see Martin Ruby.}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ruby Grant Martin
| image = RubyGrantMartin1968.png
| alt = A smiling Black woman with a short bouffant hairstyle, wearing a dark dress with two strands of beads
| caption = Ruby Grant Martin, from a 1968 publication of the US federal government
| other_names =
| birth_name = Ruby Lee Grant
| birth_date = February 18, 1933
| birth_place = Gaines Landing, Chicot County, Arkansas
| death_date = May 8, 2003
| death_place = Richmond, Virginia
| occupation = Lawyer, federal civil rights official
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
}}
Ruby Lee Grant Martin (February 18, 1933 – May 8, 2003) was an American lawyer and government official. She was director of the federal Office for Civil Rights, appointed by Lyndon B. Johnson. She won the Federal Woman's Award in 1968 for her work on school desegregation.{{Cite book|last=United States Congress House Committee on Education and Labor General Subcommittee on Education|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9oMgAAAAMAAJ&dq=Ruby+G.+Martin&pg=PA21|title=Emergency School Aid Act: Hearings, Ninety-second Congress, First Session, on H.R. 2266, H.R. 4847, and Other Related Bills ... March 15 and 16, 1971|date=1971|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|language=en}}
Early life and education
Ruby Lee Grant was born in Gaines Landing, Arkansas and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of Ben F. Grant. She graduated from Glenville High School in 1952{{Cite news|last=Harper|first=Connie|date=April 27, 1968|title=Mrs. Ruby Grant Martin Directs Rights Office|page=1|work=Call and Post|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-apr-27-1968-3000039/|access-date=February 2, 2022|via=NewspaperArchive.com}} and from Fisk University in 1956, and finished at the top of her class at Howard University School of Law in 1959.[https://trackbill.com/bill/virginia-house-joint-resolution-45-on-the-death-of-ruby-grant-martin/530494/ Virginia HJ45: On the death of Ruby Grant Martin], passed February 22, 2004 by both houses of the Virginia state legislature.{{Cite news|date=1990-02-20|title=New cabinet secretary 'cuts through red tape'|pages=5|work=The Daily Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94039198/new-cabinet-secretary-cuts-through-red/|access-date=2022-02-02|via=Newspapers.com}}
Career
Martin was a civil rights lawyer in Cleveland. She was appointed director of the Operations Division in the federal Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in 1967, and in 1968 became director of the OCR itself,{{Cite journal|last=Hampton|first=Robert E.|date=April–June 1968|title=The Federal Woman's Award|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UhT9kkyeWuEC&dq=1968+Federal+Woman%27s+Award&pg=RA3-PA25|journal=Civil Service Journal|pages=25}}{{Cite news|date=1968-04-07|title=Director of Civil Rights to Speak at Church Here|pages=16|work=The Danville Register|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94035721/director-of-civil-rights-to-speak-at/|access-date=2022-02-02}} during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson.{{Cite web|date=2003-05-10|title=Ruby Martin, 70; First Director of the U.S. Office of Civil Rights|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-may-10-me-passings10.1-story.html|access-date=2022-02-02|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}}{{Cite journal|date=May 2, 1968|title=Name Mrs. Ruby Martin Special Rights Assistant|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UTgDAAAAMBAJ&dq=Ruby+Grant+Fisk&pg=PA52|journal=Jet|pages=52}} She won the Federal Woman's Award in 1968,{{Cite news|date=1968-02-12|title=7 Federal Workers Win Woman's Award|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1968/02/12/archives/7-federal-workers-win-womans-award.html|access-date=2022-02-02|issn=0362-4331}} "for her courageous and effective administration of the civil rights compliance program and her exceptional contribution to racial justice in the field of education".{{Cite web|last=Johnson|first=Lyndon Baines|title=Remarks at the Federal Woman's Award Ceremony|url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-federal-womans-award-ceremony-0|access-date=2022-02-02|website=The American Presidency Project}} At age 34, she was the youngest recipient of that award to date.{{Cite journal|last=Hampton|first=Robert E.|date=April–June 1968|title=The Federal Woman's Award|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UhT9kkyeWuEC&dq=1968+Federal+Woman%27s+Award&pg=RA3-PA25|journal=Civil Service Journal|pages=25}}{{Cite journal|date=May 23, 1968|title=Jet Profile: Mrs. Ruby Martin: She Fights Bias in Schools|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SzgDAAAAMBAJ&dq=Ruby+Grant+Martin&pg=PA10|journal=Jet|pages=10}}
Martin co-founded and directed the Washington Research Project Action Council (now the Children's Defense Fund) in 1969,{{Cite journal|last=Gilliam|first=Annette|date=July 1972|title=Ruby Martin: The People's Advocate|journal=Essence|volume=3|pages=42–43}} with Marian Wright Edelman, and the two women testified at a House hearing on the Emergency School Aid Act in 1971,{{Cite book|last=United States Congress House Committee on Education and Labor General Subcommittee on Education|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9oMgAAAAMAAJ&dq=Ruby+G.+Martin&pg=PA23|title=Emergency School Aid Act: Hearings, Ninety-second Congress, First Session, on H.R. 2266, H.R. 4847, and Other Related Bills ... March 15 and 16, 1971|date=1971|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|pages=21–26|language=en}} and at a Senate hearing on equal educational opportunities in 1972.{{Cite book|last=United States Congress Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare Subcommittee on Education|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a5gTAAAAIAAJ&dq=Ruby+G.+Martin&pg=PA524|title=Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1972: Hearings, Ninety-second Congress, Second Session, on S. 3395 ...|date=1972|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|pages=524–546|language=en}} Later in the 1970s, she was general counsel to the House Committee on the District of Columbia.{{Cite book|last=United States Congress House Committee on the District of Columbia Judiciary Subcommittee|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JdzxagXE90YC&dq=Ruby+G.+Martin&pg=PA23|title=Miscellaneous Hearings: Hearings and Markups of the Subcommittee on Judiciary and of the Committee on the District of Columbia, House of Representatives, Ninety-fifth Congress, Second Session ... June 28 and July 17, 1978|date=1978|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|pages=23|language=en}}
Martin moved to Richmond, Virginia in 1978, and ran unsuccessfully for the city council in 1986. In 1990 She joined the cabinet of her law school classmate, Virginia governor Douglas Wilder, as Secretary of Administration.{{Cite journal|date=January 29, 1980|title=New Va. Gov. Wilder Adds 2 Blacks to His Cabinet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=170DAAAAMBAJ&dq=Ruby+G.+Martin&pg=PA6|journal=Jet|pages=6}} She served on state trade missions to Africa for Wilder{{Cite news|date=1992-06-01|title=Wilder Outlines Plans for Trip to Africa|pages=3|work=The Daily News Leader|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94035426/wilder-outlines-plans-for-trip-to-africa/|access-date=2022-02-02|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|date=1992-06-13|title=Wilder, others leave for Africa|pages=29|work=Daily Press|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94036118/wilder-others-leave-for-africa/|access-date=2022-02-02|via=Newspapers.com}} and for North Carolina governor James B. Hunt. She was chair of the Port of Richmond project, and a member of the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia. She was secretary of Women Executives in State Government.[https://trackbill.com/bill/virginia-house-joint-resolution-45-on-the-death-of-ruby-grant-martin/530494/ Virginia HJ45: On the death of Ruby Grant Martin], passed February 22, 2004 by both houses of the Virginia state legislature.
Martin served on the national board of Girl Scouts of USA, and supported efforts to create a National Slavery Museum in the United States.{{Cite news|date=2001-07-08|title=James City site eliminated for slavery museum|pages=3|work=The Daily News Leader|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94035954/james-city-site-eliminated-for-slavery/|access-date=2022-02-02|via=Newspapers.com}} She was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha.{{Cite web|title=Martin, Ruby Grant|url=http://akapioneers.aka1908.com/index.php/component/mtree/vocations/government-politics/federal/1728-martin-ruby-grant|access-date=2022-02-02|website=AKA's Pioneering Sorors Open Doors|language=en-GB}}
Personal life
Ruby Grant married a dentist, Henry S. Martin. They had three children. Martin died in 2003, aged 70 years, in Richmond.{{Cite news|date=May 10, 2003|title=Ruby Grant Martin|work=Richmond Times-Dispatch|url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/timesdispatch/name/ruby-martin-obituary?id=5368725|access-date=February 2, 2022|via=Legacy.com}} The Virginia legislature passed a joint resolution of mourning and esteem for her, in February 2004.[https://trackbill.com/bill/virginia-house-joint-resolution-45-on-the-death-of-ruby-grant-martin/530494/ Virginia HJ45: On the death of Ruby Grant Martin], passed February 22, 2004 by both houses of the Virginia state legislature.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/george-keith-martin A 2016 oral history interview with George Keith Martin], Ruby Grant Martin's son, at The History Makers
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Category:People from Chicot County, Arkansas
Category:Fisk University alumni
Category:Howard University School of Law alumni
Category:American women lawyers