Ruth DeMond Brooks
{{short description|American educator (1902–1987)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ruth DeMond Brooks
| image = RuthDeMondBrooks1924.png
| alt = The face of a young African-American woman wearing a cap and gown.
| caption = Ruth DeMond, from a 1924 publication.
| other_names =
| birth_name = Ruth Watkins DeMond
| birth_date = January 29, 1902
| birth_place = New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
| death_date = May 15, 1987
| death_place = Wheaton, Maryland, U.S.
| occupation = Teacher
| years_active = 1920s–1950s
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| parents = Abraham Lincoln DeMond
| alma_mater = Syracuse University
University of Chicago
}}
Ruth Watkins DeMond Brooks (January 29, 1902 – May 15, 1987) was an American educator. She taught history at Cardozo High School in Washington, D.C. for 28 years. Her father and husband were prominent ministers.
Early life
Ruth Watkins DeMond was born in New Orleans, the eldest of five children born to Abraham Lincoln DeMond and Lula Irene Watkins Patterson DeMond. Her father was an Episcopalian minister, born and educated in New York, and at Howard University.{{Cite news|date=February 8, 1936|title=Hold Funeral Services for Rev. DeMond in D.C.|pages=3|work=The New York Age|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40473656/obituary-for-abraham-un-eotn-demond/|access-date=September 2, 2020|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite web|date=March 18, 2019|title=Abraham Lincoln DeMond: SUNY Cortland remembers first black alum|url=https://cortlandvoice.com/2019/03/18/abraham-lincoln-demond-suny-cortland-remembers-first-black-alum/|access-date=September 3, 2020|website=Cortland Voice|language=en-US}} Her mother, from Alabama, studied music in Boston and taught at several black colleges; she was also active in temperance work.{{Cite news|date=February 24, 1945|title=Hold Funeral for Widow of Rev. DeMond|page=15|work=The Chicago Defender|id={{ProQuest| }}}}
Ruth DeMond earned a bachelor's degree from Syracuse University in 1924,{{Cite journal|date=August 1924|title=And Still More Graduates|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015019146359&view=1up&seq=373&q1=Ruth|journal=The Crisis|volume=28|pages=179|via=HathiTrust}} and earned a master's degree in history at the University of Chicago.{{Cite journal|last=Brewer|first=William M.|title=Robert William Brooks|date=1953|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44212712|journal=Negro History Bulletin|volume=16|issue=9|pages=194–215|jstor=44212712|issn=0028-2529}}{{Cite news|date=May 19, 1987|title=Ruth DeMond Brooks (obituary)|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1987/05/19/convention-center-architect-frank-west-jr-dies/9abc1158-9b48-467e-b1f8-73c69a4fbba8/|access-date=September 2, 2020|issn=0190-8286}}
Career
Brooks taught at Douglass High School in Baltimore for five years as a young woman,{{Cite news|date=January 2, 1932|title=Miss Ruth DeMond Wed to Lincoln Temple Pastor|page=1|work=Baltimore Afro American|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/marriage-clipping-jan-02-1932-1947102/|access-date=September 2, 2020|via=NewspaperArchive.com}}{{Cite journal|date=May 28, 1927|title=Helped with Play|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/entertainment-clipping-may-28-1927-1947179/|journal=Baltimore Afro American|pages=8|via=NewspaperArchive.com}} and taught history at Cardozo High School in Washington, D.C. for 28 years, with a permanent appointment granted in 1932.{{Cite news|date=September 15, 1932|title=69 Are Appointed District Teachers|pages=17|work=Evening Star|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/58543585/69-are-appointed-district-teachers/|access-date=September 2, 2020|via=Newspapers.com}} She was teaching at the school when it integrated in 1954.{{Cite web|last=Tepper|first=Rachel|date=November 15, 2011|title=Historic Cardozo High School: Then And Now (Photos)|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/photos-central-cardozo-high_n_1095308|access-date=September 3, 2020|website=HuffPost|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=School|first=Cardozo High|date=1954|others=Patricia Ford Neal|title="Purple Wave" 1954 Cardozo High School Yearbook|url=https://wdchumanities.org/dcdm/items/show/1903|access-date=September 3, 2020|website=Your DC Digital Museum, Washington, DC, Capitol Hill; December 12, 2015|language=en}} She retired from teaching in 1957.
Personal life
In 1928, Ruth DeMond was a bridesmaid at the wedding of her friend and school colleague Yolande Du Bois (daughter of W. E. B. Du Bois) to poet Countee Cullen, in New York.{{Cite news|date=April 14, 1928|title=More DuBois Wedding|page=4|work=Baltimore Afro American|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/marriage-clipping-apr-14-1928-1947095/|access-date=September 2, 2020|via=NewspaperArchive.com}}{{Cite web|title=Yolande Du Bois with bridesmaids on her wedding day, 1928|url=http://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-i0434|access-date=September 3, 2020|website=W.E.B. Du Bois Papers, Credo at UMass Amherst|language=en}} In December 1931, at her father's church in Nashville, she married Robert William Brooks, pastor of Lincoln Temple Congregational Church in Washington, D.C.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_rQRAQAAMAAJ&q=Ruth+DeMond+Brooks&pg=PA76|title=Who's who in Colored America|date=1942|publisher=Who's Who in Colored America Corporation|pages=76|language=en}} She was widowed when Rev. Brooks died in 1952, and she died in 1987, aged 85, at a nursing home in Wheaton, Maryland.
Brooks' sister Marguerite DeMond married Harlem Renaissance journalist John P. Davis. In 1989, a library book borrowed by Ruth DeMond in 1926 was returned to the Nashville Public Library system by Brooks' nephew, journalist Michael DeMond Davis.{{Cite news|last=Davis|first=Louise|date=August 16, 1989|title=Red-Letter Events Hide in the Pages of Library Books|pages=47|work=The Tennessean|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/58542507/red-letter-events-hide-in-the-pages-of/|access-date=September 2, 2020|via=Newspapers.com}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{Subject bar|portal1=Biography}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooks, Ruth DeMond}}
Category:Educators from New Orleans
Category:Syracuse University alumni
Category:University of Chicago alumni