David Ruggles
David Ruggles was born “free.” However, he lived his life knowing that neither he, nor anybody else, was really free until everybody was.
Essay after essay, Ruggles pointed out that the US was not home of the free and the brave but of money and the slave. That’s why he also served as a famous Underground Railroad conductor, ethical entrepreneur and advocate for Black women leaders of the day like Sojourner Truth.
Frederick Douglass recognized that the Black Liberation Movement lost a titan when David Ruggles passed away. We too would lose something in not recognizing this OG Black activist.