Ruth Clarke
Ruth Clarke is an activist who helped encourage her community and others to transform abandoned land into gorgeous gardens. Clarke was born in Detroit, Michigan. Clarke grew up in California but eventually found her way to Boston. Clarke had many jobs throughout her life but eventually became very involved in her community on Nonquit Street. Spurred by concerns about the vacant lots on their street were filled with trash and used mainly by drug dealers, Ruth Clarke and her neighbor, Magnolia Monroe Gordon, created the Nonquit Street Gardening Club in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Together they transformed a vacant lot into a flower garden and wildlife habitation refuge. Clarke then raised over a million dollars to rehabilitate a larger vacant lot on the same street, creating a beautiful public park where neighbors could picnic and play basketball. She started the Nonquit Street Neighborhood Association and Land Trust, Inc., whose motto is “Fighting crime with flowers.” In 1998 and 2000, Nonquit Street was selected as an official site for National Night Out, an event organized by local communities around the country to celebrate efforts to fight crime. Her work has inspired other neighborhoods to transform empty lots into gardens and parks. In 2004 she was honored at the Jewish Women’s Archive event, Women Who Dared in Boston, Massachusetts.
Ruth describes her family life and childhood, moving from Michigan, California, and Boston. Ruth says both her mother and her upbringing in the Unitarian church inspired a “sense of responsibility” to make a difference in the world. Ruth married a Jewish man and converted to Judaism as an adult. She talks about how her Dorchester neighborhood has changed in the thirty-plus years that she has lived there. Ruth details the genesis and transformation of the Nonquit Street Green to a beautiful and family-friendly community garden and park. There were many obstacles and challenges, including a lack of community support and funding. Still, eventually, she and a neighbor, Magnolia Monroe Gordon, created the Nonquit St. Neighborhood Association and Nonquit Street Gardening Club. Their motto was "Fighting Crime with Flowers." Clarke reflects on the impact the Nonquit Street Gardening Club has had on the community, how it has connected her to the people of Dorchester and beyond, and what it takes to be an activist.
