Ruby Hurley's Womanist Moral Agency

Ruby Hurley's moral agency in the NAACP consisted of advocacy for civil rights, increasing the orgainzation's membership, public speaking on race issues, and investigating racial incidents. As a Black woman serving as the Southeastern Regional Director for the NAACP from 1951 until 1978, Ruby Hurley played a vital role in the operations of the NAACP during a time when leadership positions were predominantly occupied by Black men. Using content analysis, we present documents from the various collections of archival materials processed by the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library Archives Research Center, the Auburn Avenue Research Center, and the Library of Congress. This digital exhibit will include materials that showcase Ruby Hurley's moral agency. We analyze Hurley's work and activism using "black womanist ethics", drawing on Katie G. Cannon's "Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: The Womanist Dilemma in Development of a Black Liberation Ethic." This article examines the racial identity, gender differences and respectability politics that Black women face while working in a racially segregated society and in male-dominant organizations.