Legislative Reference Library

Texas Legislators: Past & Present

George Thompson Ruby

George T. Ruby
Full Name: George Thompson Ruby
Birth date: July 1, 1841
Death date: October 31, 1882

Terms of Service

  • Senate, 13th (1) (2) (5) & 12th (3) (4) Legislatures
    2/8/1870 - 1/13/1874
    Radical Republican
(1) Entire Senate went up for reelection due to Senatorial redistricting. Act passed Apr. 24, 1873 [presented to Governor May 1, 1873 and became law without his signature], 13th Legislature, R.S., ch. 35, Apportionment Laws of Texas, 1836-1950 1950.
(2) Republican. Directory of the Members of the Thirteenth Legislature of the State of Texas 1873.
(3) 12th Legislature, 1st C.S. - Drawing for Terms of Office, 5/2/1870, pp. 51-52. Drew 6-year term. Senate Journal .
(4) Party affiliation, Radical. Roster of members, 12th Legislature, 1870. Texas Almanac for . . . and Emigrant's Guide to Texas .
(5) "Returning radicals [to the 13th Legislature] were Thomas H. Baker, Webster Flanagan, S.W. Ford, Albert J. Fountain, Matthew Gaines, Phidello W. Hall, Henry Rawson, George T. Ruby, William A. Saylor, and Robert P. Tendick," p. 145. The Texas Senate: Volume II, Civil War to the Eve of Reform, 1861-1889 1999.

Biographical Notes and Resources

Resolutions and Journal entries

  • 85th Legislature, R.S., HR 452, celebrating Black History Month and honoring the leadership and vision of African American lawmakers. Resolutions - Congratulatory and Honorary .
  • 79th Legislature, R.S., HR 589, paying tribute to African American legislators and constitutional convention delegates of 1868-1900. Resolutions - Congratulatory and Honorary .
  • 81st Legislature, R.S., HCR 81, paying tribute to African American legislators and constitutional convention delegates. Resolutions - Congratulatory and Honorary .
  • 88th Legislature, R.S., SCR 13, Recognizing the Texas Black Reconstruction Legislators Recognition Act. SB 667, Texas Black Reconstruction Legislators Recognition Act. Resolutions - Legislative Policy . SB 667 SCR 13

Photographs

Other Resources

  • Biographical sketch, pp. 12-13. Afro-American Texans 1994.
  • "George T. Ruby: Reconstruction Politician/Journalist" by Donna L. Dickerson. Volume 15, No. 1, pp. 51-68. American Journalism 1983.
  • Biographical information, pp. 55-57. Black Leaders: Texans for Their Times 1981.
  • Biographical sketch, Republican and constitutional conventions, legislation, pp. 44-48, 51-52, 68. Black Texans: a History of African Americans in Texas, 1528-1995 1996.
  • Biographical information in Alwyn Barr, "Black Legislators of Reconstruction Texas," Volume 32, Number 4, December 1986, pp. 340-352. Civil War History .
  • One of nine African-American delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1868-1869 (the Reconstruction Convention), Volume I, p. 731. D.W. Burley and Sheppard Mullens not included in list of African-American delegates. East Texas: Its History and Its Makers 1940.
  • Portrait and biographical sketch, The 1860s: George T. Ruby. Forever Free: Nineteenth Century African-American Legislators and Constitutional Convention Delegates of Texas 2002.
  • Portrait and biographical sketch, George Thompson (G.T.) Ruby. Forever Free: Nineteenth Century African-American Legislators and Constitutional Convention Delegates of Texas 2002.
  • Biography in LRL collection, 976.4 M742G 2020. George T. Ruby: Champion of Equal Rights in Reconstruction Texas 2020.
  • RUBY, GEORGE THOMPSON (1841-1882). Birth date 7/1/1841. Handbook of Texas Online .
  • Biographical sketch. Historic Figures that Influenced the History of the Red and Canadian Basins .
  • Biographical sketch, Birth of the party, Republican conventions, pp. 5-8, 12-13. History of the Republican Party in Texas 1865-1965 1965.
  • Photo, mentioned in Minority Civil Rights and the Texas Legislature 2018.
  • Mentioned in Negro Legislators of Texas and Their Descendants 1970.
  • Constitutional Convention 1868-1869 and resignation letter, biographical sketch, Radical conventions 1868, pp. 20, 24-30; Ruby's letters to Governor E.J. Davis, pp. 55-57. Negro Legislators of Texas and Their Descendants: A History of the Negro in Texas Politics from Reconstruction to Disfranchisement 1935.
  • Biographical sketch, p. 182. Overreached on All Sides: the Freedmen's Bureau in Texas Administrators, 1865-1868 1991.
  • Reconstruction Convention of 1868-1869 and biographical information, pp. 200-201. Reconstruction in Texas 1910.
  • "George T. Ruby: A Black Militant in the White Business Community," pp. 269-280. Red River Valley Historical Review 1974.
  • Mentioned in Republicanism in Reconstruction Texas 1980.
  • Delegate to Constitutional Convention, 1868. Included in "List of Delegates to the Reconstruction Convention, As Announced in Special order No. 213, Dated Headquarters Fifth Military District, New Orleans, LA., April 13th, 1868." Journal of the Reconstruction Convention, Which Met at Austin, Texas, June 1, A.D., 1868 (1870), pp 533-534. Texas Constitutions Digitization Project (Tarlton Law Library, The University of Texas at Austin) 2009.
  • "Reconstructing a Legacy: The Trials and Accomplishments of Black Legislators in Post-Civil War Texas," by Michael Hurd, July 2021, pp. 68-71. Texas Highways .
  • George Ruby and James P. Butler mentioned in account of the Constitutional Convention of 1868-1869. The Howling of the Coyotes: Reconstruction Efforts to Divide Texas 1979.
  • Biographical sketch, p. 2, portrait and Chapter 11, "George T. Ruby: The Party Loyalist," pp. 180-189. Included in list of eleven African-American delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1868-1869, Appendix A. Birth year 1841, death year 1882, Appendix D. Through Many Dangers, Toils, and Snares: Black Leadership in Texas, 1868-1898 2016.
  • Mentioned in Time of Hope, Time of Despair: Black Texans During Reconstruction 1981.
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