John Brown Russwurm Biography

John Brown Russwurm

Born to a slave mother and a white American merchant father, Russwurm was educated in Quebec and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1826, making him one of the first Black American college graduates. In 1827 he helped establish the first Black newspaper in the U.S., Freedom's Journal, in New York. Two years later, Russwurm closed the paper and moved to Liberia, stating that Black people had no future in the U.S. In Liberia, he served as superintendent of education, edited the Liberia Herald, became governor of the county of Maryland, and recruited Black Americans to settle there.