Ruby Brown $500 Match

During Black History Month, we want to recognize a very special lady, Ruby Brown, who was the best friend of NHES founder, Anna C. Briggs, and played a pivotal role at the early Peace Plantation. In her book, “For the Love of Animals,” Anna describes Ruby Brown as “her right arm and half of her left.” Long after her children were grown, Anna and Ruby remained close friends. Although Alice Morgan Wright and Anna had the land, buildings—and animals to comprise Peace Plantation, they needed a strong, capable, and compassionate leader to implement and oversee daily operations. Anna knew that Ruby would be perfect for the job. Ruby agreed to move from her apartment in Washington D.C. to Peace Plantation in 1950 to oversee the care of hundreds of dogs, cats, and other animals. Frustratingly, in those early years, and even the years beyond, Anna received criticism for granting a black woman such a position, but Anna recognized that Ruby was undoubtedly a gem—in name and in her loving care of her animal friends. Ruby worked at Peace Plantation for 34 years. No animal rescue effort was too strenuous for her. She loved the animals so much that she would go out of her way to prepare treats for them—stopping along the roadside to pick watercress to add to their meals, making corn on the cob with margarine for the cats, fixing up any little delicacy that might add pleasure to their lives. When Ruby Brown died in 1984, it was said by many that, “Ruby was Peace Plantation.”