John Edward Bruce
| John Edward Bruce | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
February 22, 1856 Piscataway, Maryland |
| Died | August 7, 1924 (aged 68) New York City |
| Resting place | Oakland Cemetery in Yonkers |
| Pen name | Bruce Grit |
| Occupation | Journalist, historian, writer, orator, civil rights activist |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Howard University |
| Spouse | Florence A. Bishop |
John Edward Bruce, also known as Bruce Grit or J. E. Bruce-Grit (February 22, 1856 – August 7, 1924), born a slave in Maryland, United States, became a journalist, historian, writer, orator, civil rights activist and Pan-African nationalist. He founded newspapers in Washington, DC and Norfolk, Virginia, as well as co-founding the Negro Society for Historical Research in New York.
Bruce was born in 1856 in Piscataway, Maryland, to enslaved parents Robert and Martha Allen (Clark) Bruce. When he was three years old, his father was sold to a slaveholder in Georgia and he and his mother fled to Washington, D.C. and later to Connecticut, where Bruce enrolled in an integrated school and received his first formal education. Traveling back to Washington later, he received a private education and attended Howard University for a time.
At the age of 18, Bruce was an assistant at the New York Times.
In Washington, DC, in 1879, Bruce established the Argus Weekly. It was a time of flourishing projects in the black community.
Next, Bruce founded the Sunday Item in 1880, and the Republican in 1882, both in Norfolk, Virginia. He served as the associate editor and business manager of the Baltimore, Maryland, Commonwealth in 1884.
Later that year, he returned to Washington, D.C. to establish the Grit. He earned income as a paid contributor to The Boston Transcript, The Albany Argus, Buffalo Express, Sunday Gazette, and Sunday Republic of Washington under his pen name of "Bruce Grit".
Bruce also became prominent on the lecture circuit, giving speeches that addressed lynching, the condition of southern blacks, and the weak American political system that failed to protect the rights of its black citizens. In 1890, he joined activist T. Thomas Fortune's Afro-American League, the first organized black civil rights group in the nation. He became the organization's new president in 1898 when it reformed as the Afro-American Council.
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