Ellen's Story

The Big Ideas

  • Ellen Garrison was born in Concord, Massachusetts , daughter and granddaughter of formerly enslaved men. Her Grandfather Cesar Robbins was a Patriot of Color who we believe  stood at the Old North Bridge on April 19, 1775.
  • As a product of Concord’s public schools, a woman, educator, freedom fighter , and champion of civil rights, Ellen Garrison stood for Concord’s values, and contributed to our town’s rich history.
  • Ellen Garrison’s life and legacy will be a rich and rewarding example to the students and families of Concord over the next 50 years and beyond in the life of this new school.
  • Ellen Garrison would be the first  alumni of the Concord Public Schools and the first person of color to have a public building named after them in nearly 400 years in Concord.
  • Ellen Garrison is an American Patriot who fought for the expansion of freedom and democracy

 

The Full Story

Ellen Garrison was born on April 14, 1823, to Jack Garrison and Susan Robbins in Concord, Mass., at the home — now the Robbins House Museum — of her maternal grandfather Caesar Robbins, a formerly enslaved man and veteran of the American Revolutionary War.

A Life Dedicated to Education

Ellen attended Concord Public Schools and, as a child, marched in the 1835 town parade as the only Black child “beneath the gaze of curiosity, surprise, ridicule and admiration” of the residents. After graduating from Concord Public School She spent her life as an educator teaching formerly enslaved people how to grow and prosper as free men and women

Ellen Garrison explained her motivation to teach in a letter written in June 1863:

“I have a great desire to go and labor among the Freedmen of the South. I think it is our duty as a people to spend our lives trying to elevate our own race. Who can feel for us if we do not feel for ourselves, and who can feel the sympathy that we can, who are identified with them? My motto is educate…educate…educate”

Standing up for Freedom

Almost a century before Rosa Parks, Ellen became one of the first African Americans in the United States to challenge the legitimacy of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Garrison and another female teacher were forcibly removed from a white only waiting room in a Baltimore train station. Undeterred, she brought suit against the railroad station train officer who assaulted her, testing the new Civil Rights Act Bill of 1866, adopted just one month earlier.

It is believed that Ellen’s lawsuit was later cited as precedent in the Rosa Parks case in 1955

Ellen Garrison felt it was her duty to test the new law. 

“I feel as though I ought to strive to maintain my rights… it will be a stand for others…”

Ellen Garrison is an American Patriot who fought for the expansion of freedom and democracy.

In the 1880s, Ellen moved to Kansas, where she taught “Exodusters,” African Americans who migrated to Kansas and neighboring states to escape racial violence in the South. She eventually moved west for health reasons, settling in Pasadena, Calif., with her husband and sister. She died on December 21, 1892, at the age of 69, and was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena. 

Honoring her Legacy

Ellen Garrison would be the first  alumni of the Concord Public Schools and the first person of color to have a public building named after them in nearly 400 years in Concord.Ellen Garrison’s life and legacy will be a rich and rewarding example to the students and families of Concord over the next 50 years and beyond in the life of this new school.