Ruth Apilado

Apilado was born on April 30, 1908, in Chicago, Illinois. Her parents were Stewart and Clara (née Whetsel) Mays.{{cite web|url=https://www.franklin.library.upenn.edu/catalog/FRANKLIN_9977143681903681|title=The HistoryMakers video oral history with Ruth Apilado [electronic resource]|publisher=University of Pennsylvania|date=August 26, 2004|page=|accessdate=November 30, 2019}} Her maternal grandmother had emigrated from Canada to Ohio, and was partly indigenous. Her paternal great-grandfather was a slave owner in Virginia.{{cite web|url=https://www.thehistorymakers.org/sites/default/files/A2004_149_EAD.pdf|title=Finding Aid to The HistoryMakers ® Video OralHistory with Ruth Apilado|publisher=The History Makers|date=August 26, 2004|page=5|accessdate=April 30, 2020}}

Apilado attended McKinley High School, which closed in 1954. She became a teacher in 1928, after graduating from Chicago Normal College (now Chicago State University).{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39745043/chicago_tribune/|title=$10 gives start to library for negro children|publisher=Chicago Tribune|date=April 14, 1940|page=13|accessdate=November 30, 2019}}

She began her journalistic career in 1942, when she briefly worked as an editor for the newly created Negro Youth Photo Scripts Magazine.{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39743612/the_weekly_review/|title=New Negro Youth Magazine Attracts Attention|publisher=The Weekly Review|date=May 29, 1942|page=2|accessdate=November 30, 2019}} In 1945, she wrote a letter to the editor expressing her criticism of Richard Wright's memoir Black Boy, stating that it was an inaccurate depiction of the typical childhood of African-Americans.{{cite book |last1=Fielder |first1=Brigitte |last2=Senchyne |first2=Jonathan |title=Against a Sharp White Background: Infrastructures of African American Print |date=May 14, 2019 |publisher=University of Wisconsin|isbn=978-0299321505 |pages=87–90 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MoGWDwAAQBAJ&q=%22Apilado%22&pg=PA187 |accessdate=November 30, 2019}} In 1950, Apilado published a novel called The Joneses, which was about the hardships of a black family living in Chicago.{{cite web|url=http://melroseparkmemories.org/newspaper/sites/default/files/19500803.pdf|title=The Joneses Wins Award|publisher=The Herald|date=August 3, 1950|page=26|accessdate=November 30, 2019}}

After retiring from teaching in 1973, Apilado founded America's Intercultural Magazine (AIM), a quarterly-published journal that set out to "bridge the gap between races, cultures, and religions."{{cite book |last1=McNif |first1=Marni |title=The Best of the Magazine Markets for Writers 2008 |date=December 1, 2007 |publisher=Writer's Institute Publications |isbn=978-1889715391 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=swddl7ug8SYC&q=%22america%27s+intercultural+magazine%22+%22bridge+the+gap%22 |accessdate=November 30, 2019}} Already in 1948, an initiative of creating such a journal (called Freedom Press) took place, when she requested the newspaper Berkeley Daily Gazette to assist her and her associates with marketing.{{cite web|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/berkeley-daily-gazette-apr-17-1948-p-6/|title=Personal Opinion|publisher=Berkeley Daily Gazette|date=April 17, 1948|page=6|accessdate=November 30, 2019}} Her anti-racism stance was reflected in the editorials that she wrote; for example, she praised the activist and church leader Willa Saunders Jones in 1975.{{cite book |last1=Hallstoos |first1=Brian James |title=Windy city, holy land: Willa Saunders Jones and black sacred music and drama |date=December 2009 |publisher=University of Iowa|page=14 |url=https://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1556&context=etd |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100722210837/http://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1556&context=etd |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 22, 2010 |accessdate=November 30, 2019 |ref=University of Iowa}} On June 16, 1990, she participated as a panelist at a writers' conference in Elgin Community College in Illinois.{{cite web|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/arlington-heights-daily-herald-suburban-chicago-may-24-1990-p-113/|title=Writers' conference|publisher=Daily Herald|date=May 24, 1990|page=113|accessdate=November 30, 2019}}

Apilado's husband was Filipino-American Inosencio Apilado. Their son, Myron Apilado, was the vice-president of minority affairs at University of Washington until the year 2000, as well as an editor of AIM.{{cite web|url=https://www.washington.edu/news/2000/02/14/uw-vice-president-for-minority-affairs-to-step-down/|title= UW vice president for minority affairs to step down |publisher=University of Washington|date=February 14, 2000|page=|accessdate=November 30, 2019}} On August 26, 2004, at age 96, she was interviewed by Larry Crowe of The History Makers, a project that produces oral history material by African-Americans. Her second cousin was the reporter, newspaper journalist and radio host Lu Palmer. She turned 113 years old in April 2021{{cite web|url=https://chicago.suntimes.com/2021/6/3/22513783/ruth-apilado-oldest-chicagoan-remains-aim-americas-intercultural-magazine-david-mcgrath|title=Ruth Apilado, the oldest living Chicagoan, remains a beacon of hope at age 113|publisher=Chicago Sun-Times|date=June 3, 2021|accessdate=June 6, 2021}} and died on 15 August later that year.{{cite web|url=https://www.mountainviewtacoma.com/obituaries/Ruth-Apilado/|title= Ruth Moselle Apilado Obituary |date=15 August 2021|page=|accessdate=25 August 2021}}

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Category:1908 births

Category:2021 deaths

Category:Mass media people from Chicago

Category:Activists for African-American civil rights

Category:American civil rights activists

Category:American people of Canadian descent

Category:American magazine editors

Category:American magazine founders

Category:American supercentenarians

Category:American women magazine editors

Category:Women supercentenarians