John Brown Russwurm (1799-1851), African American and Liberian journalist, educator, and governor, was co-editor of the first African American newspaper. After he emigrated to Africa, he became governor of Maryland-in-Liberia.

John Russwurm was born on Oct. 1, 1799, in Jamaica, British West Indies, of a Creole woman and a white American father. When his father returned to the United States in 1807, the boy was sent to Canada for schooling. His father's new wife brought John to their Maine home and insisted that he be fully educated. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1826, one of the first two blacks to graduate from any college.

Russwurm declined a position in Liberia and in 1827 joined Samuel Cornish, another free black, to edit Freedom's Journal, the first newspaper published by and for blacks. At first, following Cornish's lead and in line with the opinions of most articulate free blacks, the paper opposed the American...