Josephine Beall Willson Bruce (October 29, 1853 – February 15, 1923) was a women's rights activist in the late 1890s and early 1900s.

She was a prominent socialite in Washington, D.C., throughout most of her life where she lived with her husband, United States Senator Blanche Bruce.

In addition to these accomplishments, she was the first Black teacher in the public school system in Cleveland, and she eventually became a highly regarded educator at Tuskegee University in Alabama.

[7] Her transition to Tuskegee was made more difficult by the rural background of most students there, in contrast to her pedagogic experiences in the more cosmopolitan North.

[10] Josephine Bruce then moved to Mississippi for a short time to live with her family, only to return to Washington, D.C., to run for the presidency of the NACW in 1906.

[12] The African-American newspaper Washington Bee noted that Bruce "pays and receives calls from those of her select set with unvarying regard for etiquette".

[4] Newspapers placed great emphasis on her complexion, remarking that it did not evidence an African heritage and that her skin was so fair that she could pass for a Spanish lady.

She helped inspire the career of Mary Church Terrell by inviting the younger woman to stay with her in Washington.

Bruce also worked alongside black female teachers to strengthen the newly created National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

[4] She became the editor of the NACW's National Notes, her writings for which discussed the need for better education for colored women.

Members of this aspiring elite “defended the thesis that the social equality of all Negroes was a concept destructive to racial progress”.