Unidentified Artist

Description

Born Port Antonio, JamaicaOne of the first persons of African descent to earn a U.S. college degree (Bowdoin, 1826), John Russwurm co-founded the first Black newspaper in the United States in 1827. He and Samuel Cornish established Freedom’s Journal as a powerful platform for African Americans to assert not only the imperative of freedom but also that of racial equality. The newspaper’s influence was widespread and is credited with inspiring William Lloyd Garrison to launch the Liberator in 1831.An ardent abolitionist, Russwurm initially opposed the efforts of the American Colonization Society to send free Black people to its West African colony of Liberia. When he became convinced, however, that the civil rights of African Americans would never be recognized in the United States, he immigrated to Liberia in 1829. After serving as editor of the Liberia Herald, Russwurm was appointed as the first Black governor of Maryland in Liberia, the independent Liberian settlement established by the Maryland State Colonization Society.Library of Congress; transferred 1979 to NPG

Record Contributed By

National Portrait Gallery

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution