Speech #890025695

Mr. President. last week. the National Newspaper Publishers Association met in New York City to confer its annual Russwurm Awards. named in honor of the publisher of Americas first Negro newspaper. Freedoms Journal. John Russwurm. an immigrant from Barbados. West Indieswho was also the first Negro college graduate in the United Statespublished the first edition of Freedoms Journal at 7 Varick Street. New York City. on March 16. 1827. Thirty years later. another New York Negro newspaper. the North Star. was published in Rochester by Frederick Douglass. This journal became one of the leading spokesmen for freedom and equality in America.