John Wesley Cromwell

How this work helped shape America

Born enslaved in Portsmouth, Virginia, John Wesley Cromwell gained his freedom as a child and later built a professional career spanning education, law, publishing and federal service. In 1876, he began publishing The People's Advocate in Alexandria, later moving the weekly newspaper to Washington, D.C., and remained its proprietor and managing editor for at least eight years. Cromwell also practiced law and in 1887 represented a plaintiff before the Interstate Commerce Commission, demonstrating the expansion of Black American enterprise and professional participation in publishing, law and national commerce during the decades following emancipation.