Journalist John Edward Bruce is set to receive a headstone, decades after being buried in an unmarked grave.
First announced by CBS News, the headstone was reportedly paid for by both private and public funds.
Grassroots think tank Research Initiatives for the Strategic Empowerment of the Urban Populace, also known as Rise Up, was at the forefront of the movement to get Bruce a marker for his burial site. The Westchester County-based group focuses on increasing civic engagement to ensure that urban communities are empowered while also preserving Black history.
A black granite headstone featuring the face of Bruce will be placed at his gravesite. The new headstone comes 101 years after the journalist’s burial.
In 1924, Bruce was buried at Oakland Cemetery in Yonkers. Although hundreds attended his funeral, including famed activist Marcus Garvey, plans for a headstone were never finalized.
By finally giving him a headstone, Bruce’s work for preserving Black history will be continued.
“It was important to him that Black culture was acknowledged and us as Black individuals knew our history,” said Harold McKoy II, the Vice President of Strategic Partnership at Rise Up, per CBS News.
Born in 1856 to enslaved parents, Bruce fled with his mother to Washington, D.C. and later to Connecticut, where he began receiving a formal education. He continued his education at famed HBCU Howard University for three months before self-educating himself.
At the age of 18, he began work at the New York Times’ Washington office as a messenger.
After founding a number of outlets himself, such as the “Argus Weekly,” “Sunday Item,” the “Grit” and the “Republican,” Bruce became a contributor to “The Boston Transcript,” “Buffalo Express” and “Sunday Gazette” under his pen name of “Bruce Grit.”
As a writer, he became one of the leading Black voices of the late 1800s and early 1900s, writing pieces on violence against Black citizens and the U.S. government’s treatment of Black citizens.
Bruce also became part of the National Afro-American League. Founded by activist Timothy Thomas Fortune, the organization is recognized as the first organized Black civil rights group in the U.S. By 1898, Bruce became the president when it was rebranded to the Afro-American Council.
Bruce also became notable for writing one of the first novels featuring a Black detective as the protagonist. Titled “The Black Sleuth,” the novel was first published in serial form. Featuring main character Sadipe Okukenu, the series follows the detective as he works to uncover crimes in the turn of the century England.
