Printer and gay activist Ruth Charlotte Ellis at a printing shop, c. 1940s.
Born in Springfield, Illinois on July 23, 1899, Ruth Ellis was raised as one of four children and the only daughter to Charlie Ellis and Carrie Farro Ellis, both of whom were born in the last years of slavery in Tennessee.
Ellis’ mother died when she was a teen. Shortly afterwards, in 1915, when she was 16, she came out as lesbian, and graduated from Springfield High School in 1919, at a time when fewer than seven percent of African Americans graduated from secondary school. Eventually moving to Detroit, she had found work as a printer and soon became the first American woman to own a printing business in that city. She made a living printing stationery, fliers, and posters out of her house.
In the 1920s, she fell in love with Ceciline “Babe” Franklin, before they settled in Detroit. The couple remained together for 30 years and their house in Detroit soon became a safe space for black gay and lesbian Detroit residents, eventually being nicknamed “the gay spot”. Ellis would remain a devoted activist and advocate for the rights of gay and lesbian Americans until her death on October 5, 2000. Just prior to her death and while she celebrated her 100th birthday, the Ruth Ellis Center opened in Detroit, and helps to serve the needs of runaway, homeless and at-risk LGBT youth.
She was inducted to the Legacy Walk in 2003.