George Ruby

George Thompson Ruby (July 1, 1841 – October 31, 1882) was an African-American Republican politician in Reconstruction-era Texas. Born in New York to African-American businessman Reuben Ruby and Rachel Humphey and raised in Portland, Maine, he worked in Boston and Haiti before starting teaching in New Orleans before the end of the American Civil War.

Moving to Galveston, Texas, in 1866, where he worked as an agent for the Freedmen's Bureau, Ruby also organized for the Republican Party. He served as one of ten African-Americans elected to the 1868-1869 state constitutional convention, in the Texas Senate, and as a delegate to two Republican Party national conventions. At the first he was the only African American delegate from Texas. He also was active with labor unions, founding and serving as president of the Texas Colored Labor Convention. He earned a reputation as an educator of Louisiana African-Americans, returning to New Orleans in 1874 after the Euro-American Democratic takeover of the Texas government. He worked as a journalist in that city. Provided by Wikipedia