John Edward Bruce

John Edward Bruce, also known as Bruce Grit (February 22, 1856 - August 7, 1924) was born a slave in Maryland, United States. He was a journalist, historian, writer, orator, and Pan African nationalist.

He was born in Piscataway, Maryland, to enslaved parents Robert and Martha Allen (Clark) Bruce. This self-educated man married the former Florence A. Bishop of Cleveland, Ohio on September 10, 1885.

Newspaper publishing

In 1879, Bruce established the Argus weekly in Washington, D.C. He next founded the "Sunday Item", in 1880 and the "Republican" both of Norfolk, Virginia, in 1882. He served as the associate editor and business manager of the Baltimore, Maryland "Commonwealth" in 1884 before returning to Washington, DC to establish the "Grit" later that same year. 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". He was a member of the literary bureau of the Republican National Committee in 1900. In 1908, he established the Yonkers (N.Y.) Weekly Standard. Beginning in 1910 he served as American Correspondent for the "African Times and Orient Review" of London, England, edited by Dusé Mohamed Ali. In Yonkers he took on the position of probation officer in 1910.

Armed Self-Defense

Many black leaders from the reconstruction period espoused nonviolent strategies for social change, but John Edward Bruce supported armed self-defense against racist attacks. He is quoted as saying: "The Man who will not fight for the protection of his wife and children...is a coward and deserves to be ill treated. The man who takes his life in his hand and stands up for what he knows to be right will always command the respect of his enemy." He supported "organized resistance to organized resistance."

Later life

In 1911 he founded the Negro Society for Historical Research in Yonkers, New York with Arthur Schomburg.

His belief in an independent national destiny led him in the period around 1919 to embrace Marcus Garvey's Pan African nationalism. As a member of Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association, he wrote for the movement's "Negro World" and the "Daily Negro Times".

Despite his productivity, Bruce found that to sustain himself he had for most of his adult life to work for the Port of New York Authority. After he retired in 1922, he received a small pension until his death in New York City's Bellevue Hospital two years later. He was given an impressive State Funeral at the UNIA Liberty Hall in New York City on August 10, 1924 and was buried in Oakland Cemetery in Yonkers. More than 5000 people attended three services conducted that day honoring him.

Bruce was a Prince Hall Mason, member of the Liberian Humane Order of African Redemption and the African Society (London). He published a number of books including:

*"Concentration of Energy: Bruce Uses Plain Language in Emphasizing the Power of Organization", 1899;
*"Eminent Negroes", 1910 (children's book);
* [http://www.historicaldocuments.com/BloodRedRecord.htm "The Blood Red Record" (a history of lynching in the South), 1905] ;
*"The Blot of the Scutcheon";
*"The Nation, the Law, the Citizen: Their Relation Each to the Other";
*"No Heaven for the Black Man";
*"The Black Sleuth";
* [http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/bruceje/bruceje.html "Prince Hall, the Pioneer of Negro Masonry: Proofs of the Legitimacy of Prince Hall Masonry", 1921.]

External links

* [http://www.unia-acl.org The Official UNIA-ACL Website]
* [http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/bruce.html THE GLOBAL AFRICAN COMMUNITY]