Remembering Dr. Ruth Smith Wells
God’s woman, was committed to making a difference. She auspiciously intertwined home, church, work, and community in a praiseworthy manner. Her ability to manage the life God had given her was remarkable, and it mimicked Colossians 3:23-24 to “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward and that the Master you are serving is Christ. She was one of God’s flowers who was born to serve.”
Dr. Ruth Smith Wells was born November 4, 1929, a few days after the Stock Market crashed, in North Philadelphia, to the late Mother Jessie Crawford Smith and Birlee Smith. She was the last surviving of ten siblings: Jessie, Walter, Albert, Drusilla, Viney, Lillian, Floyd, Timothy, and Delores. She is believed to be the last grandchild of Anthony Crawford, who was lynched in 1916 in Abbeville, South Carolina.
Ruth Wells was nurtured in the Fire Baptized Holiness Church of God of the Americas until 1942, at the age of thirteen, when she joined Christian Hope Baptist Church under the leadership of Reverend Franklin Henley. She faithfully and tirelessly served for eighty-one years in many capacities until her health began to decline. Still, she directed individuals to organize tasks in her physical absence. Her service included Deaconess, Church Secretary, Church Clerk, President of the Board of Christian Education, President of the Senior Choir, and President of the Senior Missionaries. Her work inside of Christian Hope led her to move not only herself but the membership of the church into arenas that challenged them to live for God purposefully.
In the larger Christian Fellowship, Dr. Wells was a lay speaker. She spoke the gospel of Jesus Christ for many Women’s Day Services throughout the East Coast. “Love Lifted Me,” “Hold Up Your Corner,” “Life’s Punctuation Marks,” “Somebody Oughta Say Something, “ and “Are You Living By the Golden Rule?” are a few of her inspiring, thoughtful, and dynamic speeches. In those speeches, she stretched individual’s thinking and stimulated minds to want better for their lives.
She was a past president of the Pennsylvania Baptist State Convention Women’s Ministry; Past Director of Christian Education, Young People’s Department, National Baptist Convention, Inc.; former Youth Director of the Eastern Keystone Baptist Association; Past Director of New England Baptist Youth Ministry; member of the Eastern Region Board of Evangelism; Convener, Clergy and Church Women’s Committee, and the National Congress of Black Political Women.
She was instrumental in the forming of the Men and Women’s Union of the Pennsylvania Baptist State Convention. She was the former Director of Project Cultural Enrichment through Education (Project C.E.E.), a daily community education program operated by Christian Hope Baptist Church. While spearheading these different facets of her faith, she planted a distinctive seed in the lives she touched. Because of that touch, she was viewed as God’s Ambassador, pushing people out of their comfort zones and into their God-given gifts. The number of lives she challenged to reach their highest potential is incomprehensible.
Dr. Wells was a concerned citizen and agent of change. She felt the need to speak up and effect change on many platforms. A transformer in her own right, if she recognized inequality and injustice, she made some noise. In 1955, at the urging of her brother, Albert, who was already a Police Officer, she decided to apply to the Philadelphia Police Department. In a time when women were not permitted to hold the title of Police Officer but instead were referred to as Police Matrons with limited policing duties, she stood up for women and sued the Philadelphia Police Department. That suit opened the door to women Police Officers in our city. She was one of 1300 applicants who applied for the position of Police Officer and one of nineteen appointed to the first class of female recruits trained at the Philadelphia Police Academy. She and Albert became the first brother-sister team in the Philadelphia Police Department. At that time, labor laws did not allow for maternity leave for women. She felt passionate about women's rights, and when something did not sit well with her, she had to do something about it. Every time she became pregnant she was terminated. She felt that action was insensitive to women’s desire to reproduce, so she sued the city and won, earning a maternity benefit for female officers. At the age of forty-six, she returned to the Police Academy to earn the title of Police Officer as opposed to Policewoman a title that equated to evolution. She was an adviser to Penelope Brace in her lawsuit that entitled women to become detectives and supervisors. She served the city for more than twenty-one years, and through her service, she gave women a voice and reduced bias in the department. She was rated outstanding by all her supervisors.
She supported Alphonso Deal and his presidency with the Guardian Civic League, which bridges the gap between the community and the police. Her compassion for others led her to start the Guardian’s Thanksgiving Basket Giveaway to help families during the holiday season. Her last assignment with the Police Department was in Community Relations, where she would appear on local news stations providing security tips for women. In late 1976, the University of Pennsylvania commissioned her to develop and oversee its Public Safety Education and Training Program. Dr. Wells retired as Director of Victim Support Services in 1993 after seventeen years of service. In that same year, retirement would not stop her work. She, alongside her friend C. Delores Tucker, whom she met as a teen at the Philadelphia High School for Girls,’ combined forces to combat Gangsta Rap. They found the lyrics misogynistic, concerning, and threatening to the moral foundation of the African American community. They were ridiculed, mocked, and jailed but that did not stop their protest; activism was synonymous with their names.
In 1964, she and her husband, Joseph, with the support of her activist friends, became the first Black family living on the 6700 block of Sydenham Street. She took her last breath in the same home sixty years later.
She greatly supported Reverend Dr. Martin L. King Jr. She attended many meetings and marches, including the March on Washington. She had the unique opportunity to present Dr. King with a check from the New England Missionary Baptist Convention to support his plight for justice and equality through nonviolence. She was influential in the election of Congressman William Gray, Mayor Wilson Goode, the first African American Mayor of Philadelphia, Councilperson Augusta Clark, and Congressman Dwight Evans. In 2005, she was present, as both an advocate and victim for the U.S. Senate Apology for Lynching. She appreciated then Senator Barack Obama leaving the Senate floor to come to the gallery to give his personal apology to the families. In October 2016, she was recognized by the Equal Justice Initiative commemoration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Lynching of Anthony P. Crawford in Abbeville, SC. She also appears in the documentary “Anthony Crawford: A Man the South Forgot” that chronologically outlines her grandfather's life.
A graduate of LaSalle University in 1975, the Pennsylvania Congress of Christian Education, University of Pennsylvania, and Bryn Mawr College with further studies at Temple University, she used her academic skills to improve life for people. She was the subject of the following publications: The Collegiate, Ebony Magazine, Jet Magazine, Women in Policy, The World of Work, The Vision and Voice, and Black Philadelphia Memories. She was also a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha, Sorority Incorporated Omega Omega Chapter.
Dr. Wells was a former member of the City of Philadelphia Board of Ethics; a member of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) which has a scholarship in her name; the Guardian Civic League; ICLEA; founding member of Mayor’s Commission for Women; founding member of Pennsylvania Campus Crime Prevention Practitioner’s Association; Past Chairperson, Board of Director’s Women Organized Against Abuse; member of University of Pennsylvania Onyx Senior Honor Society, and Women’s Faculty Club. She was on the Board of Directors for the Settlement House, Big Sister Association, and WOAR. She founded the Women of Color Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.
She was an avid worldwide traveler. Her love for traveling led her to become an agent for Lewter-Scott Travel. She traveled to Israel, Egypt, South Africa, Denmark, Sweden, the Caribbean islands, and most states. In her retirement years, she enjoyed cruising.
The sixty-eight-year love story of the Sweeties is one for the record. She met Joseph at Christian Hope Baptist Church; they became friends by serving in various church ministries. They married at Christian Hope in 1956, and became each other’s lifelong “Sweetie.” They are the parents to Cheri, Joseph III (Vicki), Angela (Andre), and Aimee, and love parents to Kathres (Bernard). She was loved and cared for by her niece, Pamela Smith, throughout her illness. They are the proud grandparents of fourteen: Jason, Jennifer, Jazzmin, Stephanie, Allana, Marletia, Kahmar, Sarah, Andre Jr., Kira, Jalen, Alexandra, Kai, and Abijah, Jr. They have seven adoring great-grandchildren, Laila, Mason, Jackson, Eden, Magic, Nori, and Josephine. She adored her goddaughters, Andre Jackson and Norma Register, who proceeded her in death; godsons, Leonard Churn and Lorell McCook; five sisters-in-love, Susanna Smith, Josephine Morris, Lorretta James, Shirley Hinson, and Karen Wells; one brother-in-law, David Wells; a plethora of cousins, nieces, and nephews and the devotion of her Christian Hope Baptist Church family.
Dr. Ruth Etta Smith Wells lived her life as her favorite scripture, Proverbs 3:5-6 directed. She trusted the Lord with all her heart and leaned not to her understanding. In all her ways, she acknowledged Him, and He directed her path. There is a quote that states, “Great leaders don’t set out to be a leader; they set out to make a difference. It’s not about the role; it’s all about the goal.” Under God’s direction, She was “A Women Who Made A Difference!”