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John Russwurm: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Abolitionist
John Russwurm: Education and Scholarship\Administrator\Superintendent
Portrait
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; transfer from the Library of Congress
Restrictions & Rights
CC0
Object number
NPG.79.252
Exhibition Label
Born Port Antonio, Jamaica
One of the first African Americans to earn a U.S. college degree (Bowdoin, 1826), John Russwurm cofounded the first Black newspaper in the United States in 1827. He and Samuel Cornish established Freedom’s Journal as a platform for African Americans to assert the imperatives of freedom and 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.
Nacido en Puerto Antonio, Jamaica
John Russwurm, uno de los primeros afroamericanos graduados de universidad en Estados Unidos (Bowdoin, 1826), cofundó el primer periódico negro del país en 1827. Con Samuel Cornish estableció el Freedom’s Journal como plataforma para que los afroamericanos expusieran los imperativos de libertad e igualdad racial. La influencia del periódico fue amplia y se le atribuye haber inspirado a William Lloyd Garrison a publicar el Liberator en 1831.
Abolicionista ferviente, Russwurm se opuso inicialmente a los esfuerzos de la Sociedad Americana de Colonización por enviar afroamericanos libres a Liberia, su colonia en África Occidental. Sin embargo, en 1829 él mismo emigró, convencido de que Estados Unidos nunca reconocería los derechos civiles de los afroamericanos. Russwurm fue editor del Liberia Herald y más tarde primer gobernador negro de Maryland en Liberia, el asentamiento independiente establecido por la Sociedad de Colonización del Estado de Maryland.
