The Struggles of John Brown Russwurm

Download or read book The Struggles of John Brown Russwurm written by Winston James and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2010-08-30 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Brown Russwurm (1799-1851) was an educator, abolitionist, editor, government official, emigrationist and colonizationist in the Pan-African movement. His life was one of "firsts" : first African American graduate of Maine's Bowdoin College; co-founder of Freedom's Journal, America's first newspaper to be owned, operated, and edited by African Americans; and, following his emigration to Africa, first black governor of the Maryland section of Liberia. Despite his accomplishments, Russwurm struggled internally with the perennial Pan-Africanist dilemma of whether to go to Africa or stay and fight in the United States, and his ordeal was the first of its kind to be experienced and resolved before the public eye.