The remarkable life of one of the first black female newspaper editors in the US: Mary Ann Shadd Cary

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Google’s Doodle of 9 October honours the 197th anniversary of Mary Ann Shadd Cary, a writer, teacher, lawyer, abolitionist and suffragist, who is an American-Canadian newspaper editor and publisher. Shadd Cary was born on 9 October in Delaware to two committed abolitionists in Wilmington on 9 October 1823 who used their home to provide refuge for escaping slaves as an underground train station. 

Shadd Cary was the first Black feminine journalist and editor in North American and the second Black woman to receive a degree in law in America after graduating from boarding school, then practising as a teacher. In 1853, after her family relocated to Canada following the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, she published her historical paper The Freeman Provincial, which was a weekly newspaper geared for escaping the slaves. In 1883, the following marriage and returning to the United States, Shadd Cary completed her law degree from Howard University. As a person of national historical importance, the Canadian government recognised her in 1994 as a result of her services to culture and literature. 

The Google Doodle is illustrated by guest artist Michelle Theodore who is based in Alberta , Canada.

TOA Correspondent

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