John Russwurm Graduates from Bowdoin College

John Bowdoin Russwurm graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine in 1826 — one of the first Black Americans to earn a college degree in the United States. The following year he co-founded Freedom's Journal with Samuel Cornish. After editorializing in favor of emigration — a controversial position — he emigrated to Liberia in 1829 and served as superintendent of education and later governor of Maryland in Liberia.