Struggle & Resistance Achievement & Excellence

January 1834

New York's African Free Schools, operating since 1787 and educating over 1,400 children by 1815, produced Henry Highland Garnet, Alexander Crummell, Ira Aldridge (the era's greatest Black Shakespearean actor), James McCune Smith (first Black American MD), and Samuel Ringgold Ward. The schools were taken over by the New York Public School Society in 1834.

Events

1834
African Free School Produces Extraordinary Generation of Black Leaders
New York's African Free Schools, operating since 1787 and educating over 1,400 children by 1815, produced Henry Highland Garnet, Alexander Crummell, Ira Aldridge (the era's greatest Black Shakespearean actor), James McCune Smith (first Black American MD), and Samuel Ringgold Ward. The schools were taken over by the New York Public School Society in 1834.
1834
David Ruggles Opens First Black Bookstore and Leads Underground Railroad
David Ruggles opened the first Black-owned bookstore in the United States in New York City in 1834, selling abolitionist literature and anti-slavery newspapers. He was also a founding member of the New York Vigilance Committee, personally assisting hundreds of freedom-seekers including the young Frederick Douglass upon his escape from slavery in 1838. Ruggles combined Black entrepreneurship with frontline abolitionist organizing in ways that inspired a generation of activists.