“We want and we ask for equality. Not colonial control or protection. We [support] the same ideal of the American union with equality in rights and in duties.”

José Celso Barbosa Alcalá was a physician, polemicist, professor, politician, and publisher, born on July 27, 1857 in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. Barbosa was one of the 1^st Afro-Puerto Ricans to attend Seminario Conciliar de San Ildefonso high school in Puerto Rico, and pursued a college education in the U.S. He was denied admission to Columbia University, however, due to his race. Instead, Barbosa attended the University of Michigan and earned a medical degree with honors in 1880. Barbosa returned to Puerto Rico to practice medicine yet faced discrimination under Spanish rule. After additional medical qualification tests, Barbosa would serve primarily poor and black Puerto Rican communities. He also taught natural history, anatomy, obstetrics, and midwifery to his local communities. During the Spanish-American war, Barbosa would become largely involved in politics and the Puerto-Rican Statehood movement. For his commitment to Puerto Rico, Barbosa is celebrated every July 27^th on José Celso Barbosa day.