User:Liliane Umutoni/sandbox

Early life
Ruth Winifred Howard was born on March 25, 1900, in Washington D.C., to Reverend William J. Howard,, and Alverda Brown Howard. She was the youngest of 8 children. Ruth Howard's father tenured as the minister of Zion Baptist Church, a period of time in which the church extended its influence and attracted more people, and her mother's praise for education shaped Ruth Howard's life later on. As a child, she enjoyed reading and aspired to be a librarian. Howard's mother strongly encouraged her reading habit. She considered her father's active work in the community as one of the main sources of her passion to help other people and as what influenced her work with disabled children. In 1916, she graduated from the historic M Street High school, now known as Dunbar High School.