Spouse of … Founder: Ex-Officer who Spent 100 Days in Jails in South Dies”, In 1960, Smith-Robinson enrolled as a student at Spelman College in Atlanta. On the headstone at her Atlanta gravesite are words appropriate for both her life and SNCC: “If you think free, you are free.” Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson died on 1967-10-09. She succeeded James Forman as SNCC’s executive secretary in Atlanta and was the only woman ever to serve in this capacity. Within the emergence of the Black power movement in conjunction with the Civil from PSC 318 at Spelman College Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from its earliest days in 1960 until her death in October 1967. That led her to SNCC’s founding conference at Shaw University.In February 1961, then 18-year-old Robinson volunteered to go to Rock Hill, South Carolina to support the “Rock Hill Nine,” local college students who had sat in and refused bail after they were arrested.Smith-Robinson served as assistant secretary of SNCC in the In May 1966, Robinson replaced James Forman as SNCC’s executive secretary, the The following year Robinson was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She “was convinced that there was nothing that she could not do…she was a tower of strength,” recalled Stokely Carmichael.Born in Atlanta, Georgia on April 25, 1942, to Alice and John T. Smith, Smith-Robinson was raised in Atlanta’s black middle-class neighbourhood of Summerhill. To deal with her frustration and anxiety, she kept empty Coca-Cola bottles in her office, which she would throw against the wall, sweep up their remains, then get back to work.In May 1966, replacing James Forman, she was the first female to be elected as executive secretary.In January 1967, her health began to decline precipitously around the same time as the splintering of SNCC, and she was admitted to a hospital. Her Love: To bring to fore the activities of women making a global impact.
SNCC was particularly drawn to Guinea because it was a symbol of freedom and power to African Americans. This innovative and determined spirit displayed in her activism was also part of her administrative demeanor. Commenting on her self-confidence and leadership ability Stokely Carmichael said, “She was convinced that there was nothing that she could not do…she was a tower of strength.”Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson soon became a legend within SNCC with most early SNCC members being able to recount at least one Ruby Smith-Robinson story. Smith-Robinson’s involvement was much bigger than … She discovered that this was due to the fact that fraternity brothers were on the admissions committees. She had before avoided the organization since there seemed to be a stronger focus on strategy and planning rather than participating in actual protests. A portrait of Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson from the public domain Source. “I will never rest until it happens. Here she raised the issue of attacks within the black community and the need to deal with problems among fraternities and sororities. She served the organization as an activist in the field and as an administrator in the Atlanta central office.
The group was arrested and sentenced to 30 days in prison. The slogan she created for the boycott was “have integration will shop, have segregation will not.” Even on days when no one else was there to protest, she picketed outside the A&P grocery store alone.The first SNCC meeting Ruby attended was in February 1961.
Theodora Aidoo is a young woman who is passionate about women-related issues. This included initiating an economic boycott and kneel-ins at whites churches. Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson (April 25, 1942 – October 9, 1967) worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from its earliest days in 1960 until her death in October 1967. Robinson, Ruby Doris Smith, 1941-1967 Biography: Member of Highlander Workshop for SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), Highlander Research and Education Center, Knoxville, Tennessee, 1962. This hard-nosed administrator and legendary activist was born in No matter how insulated they were, however, the reality of American Ruby also remembered her reaction to the white people she came in contact with when she was a youngster: "I didn't recognize their existence, and they didn't recognize mine....My only involvement was in throwing rocks at them".Ruby’s mother encouraged her to study hard and to participate in extracurricular activities rather than help with the household work such as cooking.
As a 19-year old Spelman College student, she participated in the Nashville, Tennessee (via Birmingham, Alabama) to Montgomery, Alabama Freedom Ride from May 17 to 21, 1961. When Ruby Smith entered Spelman College in 1959, she quickly became involved in the In the summer of 1960, though many students involved in the Atlanta Student Movement were no longer on campus, Ruby continued to organize.
At the age of 16, Ruby graduated from Price High School and went on to Young Ruby, like many young Black Americans of her generation, became convinced that change was possible. Doris Ruby died in 1951.
She became the SNCC’s administrative secretary, the first and only woman to serve in that capacity. While in Guinea, they met with government officials and even the president.In 1964, while still devoting much of her time to SNCC, she married Clifford Robinson and in 1965 had a son, Kenneth Toure Robinson, named in honor of the president of Guinea. Sadly, Smith-Robinson lived only seven more years after joining the Movement. She died on October 7, 1967, at the age of 25. The movement’s focus needed to be also within the black community.In the fall of 1961, she reapplied to Spelman College with a recommendation from By 1963, she had become SNCC's administrative secretary and a full-time member of the central office staff working as a day-by-day organizer, financial coordinator, and administrator. This stems from her journalism background from the Nigerian Institute of Journalism and Ghana Institute of Journalism.Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson was a civil rights leader. She suffered for ten months from a rare blood disease, and in April of that year she was diagnosed with terminal cancer.She is the subject of a biography by Cynthia Fleming, entitled “Ruby Robinson, 26, A S.N.C.C. Balancing a marriage, a child, and movement work was a challenge that left little to no time for her to rest.