Constance Ridley Heslip

Constance Ridley Heslip
Born
Constance Josephine Ridley

April 5, 1892
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedNovember 1972 (age 80)
Toledo, Ohio, U.S.
OccupationsEducator, clubwoman
MotherFlorida Yates Ruffin Ridley
RelativesGeorge Lewis Ruffin (grandfather)
Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin (grandmother)

Constance Josephine Ridley Heslip (April 5, 1892 – November 1972) was an American educator and clubwoman, active in civil rights organizations in Toledo, Ohio. She taught race relations at the University of Toledo in the 1930s and 1940s.

Early life and education

Ridley was born in Boston, the daughter of Ulysses Archibald Ridley Jr. and Florida Yates Ruffin Ridley. Her mother was a noted journalist, educator, and clubwoman,[1] and her father was a tailor. Her maternal grandparents were judge George Lewis Ruffin and Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, founder of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs.[2] She attended Simmons College.[3]

Career

Heslip was head resident worker at the Robert Gould Shaw House, a settlement house in Lower Roxbury, Massachusetts.[4] She taught race relations as a sociology course at the University of Toledo for sixteen years,[5] beginning in 1931.[6][7] She corresponded with W. E. B. Du Bois.[8] She co-founded the Toledo chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, and served on the national executive board of the YWCA.[9][10][11] She served on a governor's commission on employment in Ohio, on the committee on race relations of the Toledo Council of Churches, and on the board of the Toledo Consumers League. She was treasurer of the Toledo branch of the NAACP.[4] She was a member of the Toledo Council on the Cause and Cure of War.[12][13] Heslip spoke on race relations, war, and employment, to audiences in Ohio,[14][15] Michigan,[16][17] Missouri,[18] and Virginia in the 1930s and 1940s.[19]

Publications

  • "The Study of the Negro in College and University Curricula" (1943)[20]

Personal life

Ridley married attorney and World War I veteran Jesse S. Heslip in 1927.[21][3] Her mother lived with her until the older woman's death in 1943;[1] Heslip gave her mother's papers to a cousin, historian Maude T. Jenkins, in 1969.[22][23] Her husband died in 1971, and she died in 1972, at the age of 80.[24] The Heslip-Ruffin Family Papers are in the collection of the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University.[25]

References

  1. ^ a b "Mrs. F. R. Ridley, Negro Educator, Dies in Toledo". The Boston Globe. February 26, 1943. p. 16. Retrieved February 26, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ Johnson, Toki Schalk (August 17, 1963). "Ruffin-Ridley Heritage Illustrious, Historical". New Pittsburgh Courier. p. 6. Retrieved February 26, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ a b "Miss Ridley Weds Attorney Heslip". New Pittsburgh Courier. September 3, 1927. p. 6. Retrieved February 26, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b "Mrs. Constance Ridley Heslip". The Crisis: 291. September 1942.
  5. ^ "Instructor of Race Relations Addresses Gibsonburg Sorosis". The News-Messenger. January 28, 1950. p. 6. Retrieved February 26, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Constance Heslip is Toledo U. Prof; Bostonian Will Lecture on Race Relations at Ohio City Institution". The Afro-American. July 25, 1931. p. 9. Retrieved February 26, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "College and School News". The Crisis: 259. September 1943.
  8. ^ "Letter from Constance Ridley Heslip to W. E. B. Du Bois, March 13, 1939". W. E. B. Du Boys Papers, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Retrieved February 25, 2025.
  9. ^ "To Speak at Lucy Thurman Y.W.C.A., Jan. 23". The Detroit Tribune. January 18, 1936. p. 1. Retrieved February 26, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Robertson, Nancy Marie (2007). Christian Sisterhood, Race Relations, and the YWCA, 1906-46. University of Illinois Press. p. 167. ISBN 978-0-252-03193-9.
  11. ^ "Tells Plight of Colored Jobless; Mrs. Constance Heslip Gives Address Before Social Workers". The Kalamazoo Gazette. October 11, 1934. p. 15. Retrieved February 26, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Prominent Ohio Woman to Accompany Husband". New Pittsburgh Courier. March 25, 1933. p. 11. Retrieved February 26, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "A Delegate to Philly". New Pittsburgh Courier. May 12, 1934. p. 9. Retrieved February 26, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "Silver Cross Hears Mrs. Jesse Heslip on Negro Problems". The Daily Sentinel-Tribune. October 17, 1944. p. 4. Retrieved February 26, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "King's Daughters to Hear Mrs. Jesse Heslip Monday". The Daily Sentinel-Tribune. October 14, 1944. p. 4. Retrieved February 26, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Mrs. Heslip Inspires Audience". The Detroit Tribune. February 1, 1936. p. 1. Retrieved February 26, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Detroit: Mrs. Constance Ridley Heslip". The Afro-American. March 5, 1932. p. 16. Retrieved February 26, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "Mrs. Jesse Heslip to Speak Here on Sunday". The Call. January 23, 1942. p. 34. Retrieved February 26, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ "Constance Heslip to Speak". New Pittsburgh Courier. February 26, 1944. p. 9. Retrieved February 26, 2025.
  20. ^ Heslip, Constance Ridley (1943). "The Study of the Negro in College and University Curricula". Negro History Bulletin. 7 (3): 59–70. ISSN 0028-2529. JSTOR 44212084.
  21. ^ Who's who in Colored America. Who's Who in Colored America Corporation. 1942. p. 250.
  22. ^ Johnson, Toki Schalk (June 25, 1969). "Toki Types". New Pittsburgh Courier. p. 11. Retrieved February 26, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ Jenkins, Maude T. (1984). The History of the Black Woman's Club Movement in America. Teachers College, Columbia University.
  24. ^ "Other Deaths". The Daily Sentinel-Tribune. November 13, 1972. p. 2. Retrieved February 26, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ "Heslip-Ruffin Family Papers". Amistad Research Center finding aids. Retrieved February 25, 2025.
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