African American to graduate from Bowdoin College and the third African American to graduate from an American college. Career Editor of Freedom's Journal Russwurm moved to New York City in 1827. The New York City of their day boasted the largest population of Blacks in any Northern city—an estimated 15,000, which was 10 percent of the 150,000 free "colored" people living in the North. By the early 1800s, these free Blacks and escaped slaves, who lived in a segregated world, had developed their own churches, schools and clubs. In a country that kept 90 percent of Black people in bondage, these institutions provided more than social outlets, they meant survival. On March 16 of that year, 27-year-old Russwurm, along with his co-editor Samuel Cornish, published the first edition of Freedom's Journal, an abolitionist newspaper dedicated to opposition of slavery. Freedom's Journal was the first newspaper in the United States to be owned, operated, published and edited by African Americans. During his tenure as editor, Russwurm regularly included material about ancient and modern African history, providing readers on both sides of the Atlantic with a curated source of information about the continent. The literary education Russwurm provided in the Herald also included canonical texts of English literary education. In the poetry column of this first issue, for example, he reprinted "Prediction of the Origin of Rome", an excerpt from John Ring. When Cornish resigned from the paper in September 1827, Russwurm used his position to advocate for voluntary emigration of Black people from the United States to Africa. Although such ideas were unpopular with many in the Black leadership, and despite Russwurm's reservations about the American Colonization Society's racist tendencies, Russwurm believed that Black people were more likely to prosper in Africa than in the United States. As a result, he resigned as editor in March 1829 and emigrated to Liberia. Cornish, who rejected emigration, started a new paper, The Rights of All. Freedom's Journal may have only lasted two years, but it quickly opened the door for a wave of Black newspapers. By the time the Civil War started, there were more than 40 Black-owned and -operated newspapers in the United States. Emigration to Liberia Upon emigrating to Liberia, Russwurm started work as the colonial secretary for the American Colonization Society, serving from 1830 to 1834. He worked as the editor of the Liberia Herald He resigned from this post