John Brown Russwurm (1799–1851) was an American abolitionist born in Jamaica to an English father and enslaved mother. He came as a child to the United States with his father and was schooled here, becoming the first African American to graduate from Bowdoin College. As a young man, Russwurm moved from Portland, Maine, to New York City, where he was a founder with Samuel Cornish of the abolitionist newspaper, Freedom's Journal, the first paper owned and operated by African Americans.