I wrote a book series called The Prodigy Slave. I dedicated the second book in the series to William Lloyd Garrison. I decided to do this because William reminded me of a character in my story with the same name. Not only does his first name and race mirror the character from my story, but so, too, do his morals. William Lloyd Garrison was a white man who defied the typical white privilege odds during the Slavery Era. He was one of those rare souls who did not use his power and privilege to abuse, but rather, to uplift and assist those who were less fortunate. Instead of selfishness, his actions were wholly guided by extraordinary selflessness!

    William Lloyd Garrison was born December 10th, 1805. Being white and male placed William at the very top of the privilege hierarchy in the Slavery Era. He could vote. He could take advantage of higher education. He could run for political office … and he could own other humans. The life road for a man with his fortunate birthrights was essentially paved in gold with relatively few obstacles standing in his way. For his entire lifetime, William could have probably walked unobstructed on his golden, paved path as he lived a comfortable life. William could have easily kept his distaste for slavery to himself, only ever complaining about it within the confines of his mind. However, slavery was something that William Lloyd Garrison was so vehemently opposed to that he felt an unrelenting need to take action. “For to quietly accept the status quo of blatant human injustice is equivalent to supporting it.” It was that sort of mindset that led this courageous man to step off his golden, paved path and step into the mud to begin trying to pave a golden path for people who did not have such a luxury. He began that quest by pouring the provocative thoughts in his mind onto the pages of The Liberator, a weekly newspaper that was first printed on January 1st, 1831. Every week in The Liberator, William boldly denounced slavery and demanded the freedom of all who were held captive by the institution. 

   With the very first publication of The Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison instantly became the sort of outspoken, white man who self-serving, white, privileged, slave-owning men automatically viewed as an enemy. In their eyes, William was a traitor to be silenced or whose life deserved to be ended. The power of William’s words makes it clear why most Southern, slave-owning whites viewed the printing of The Liberator as “shots fired.”

    Here is just a small sample of the passionate way in which William Lloyd Garrison expressed his disdain for slavery and those who benefited from it …

    "I determined, at every hazard, to lift up the standard of emancipation in the eyes of the nation, within sight of Bunker Hill and in the birth place of liberty...Let southern oppressors tremble-let their secret abettors tremble-let their apologists tremble – let all the enemies of the persecuted blacks tremble...I am aware, that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! No! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest-I will not equivocate-I will not excuse-I will not retreat a single inch-AND I WILL BE HEARD”

    Valiant messages such as these were printed weekly in The Liberator. And William never missed a week for thirty-four years!!!! 

    William took further action by co-founding The American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833 along with Author Tappan. This society was created to add more fuel to the fire of the abolitionist movement. Their conventions were considered so controversial at the time that speakers often dealt with violence from pro-slavery mobs during their rallies. However, the violence did nothing to deter membership growth of The American Anti-Slavery Society. By 1838, membership had grown to 1,350 chapters with 250,000 members, many of whom were white. One of the most notable among them was Susan B. Anthony, known for her movement in women’s rights as well. Fredrick Douglass was another notable member of the group. William encouraged Fredrick to speak out about the horrors of his life as a slave to help people understand the stomach-turning reality of what slaves were truly suffering through. 

    Ironically, it was through The Liberator newspaper that Fredrick Douglass first came to know of William Lloyd Garrison. The impact of the paper motivated Fredrick to say the following beautiful words in return…

    “I had been living four or five months in New Bedford when there came a young man to me with a copy of the Liberator, the paper edited by William Lloyd Garrison, and published by Isaac Knapp, and asked me to subscribe for it. I told him I had but just escaped from slavery, and was of course very poor, and had no money then to pay for it. He was very willing to take me as a subscriber, notwithstanding, and from this time I was brought into contact with the mind of Mr. Garrison, and his paper took a place in my heart, second only to the Bible.”

    “The paper (The Liberator) became my meat and my drink. My soul was set all on fire. Its sympathy for my brethren in bonds--its scathing denunciations of slaveholders--its faithful exposures of slavery--and its powerful attacks upon the upholders of the institution--sent a thrill of joy through my soul, such as I had never felt before! I had not long been a reader of the "Liberator," before I got a pretty correct idea of the principles, measures, and spirit of the anti-slavery reform. I took right hold of the cause.”

    Despite all the violence, controversy, and backlash for his abolitionist views, William continued at the helm of The American Anti-Slavery Society until 1870. He also printed The Liberator weekly until well after the end of the Civil War. The newspaper printed its final paper in December of 1865 once the 13th amendment was ratified, which officially abolished slavery in the United States. The final edition of newspaper stated the following…

    “The Liberator will then be discontinued for the reason that the object for which it was started has been accomplished – slavery not only having been abolished by the war for the Union, but also by Constitutional Amendment. What a grand and sublime triumph!”

    I believe that last sentence is an understatement! Over the decades, I think it has also been understated how much honor William Lloyd Garrison truly deserves for his contributions to highlighting racial injustice and for having the courage to put his life in the line of fire to rectify it. He so reminded me of the character, William, in my trilogy, The Prodigy Slave, that it was a rather easy choice to dedicate one of the books in the series to him. However, I feel that a mere book dedication is not enough to honor William Lloyd Garrison for his inspirational sacrifices; he should be nationally celebrated and honored for his courage to stand up to the giants of his era.

    Before I elaborate more on the way in which I hope to achieve this, I would like to make this point …

   For far too long, certain states in America have continued to honor Confederate leaders such as Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis. So, I would like to do a thought experiment that might help to highlight how odd this is. Imagine for a moment that there was a black power organization that attacked an American fort with the intention of triggering a war to literally divide The United States. Imagine that same black organization figuratively spitting on our constitution, disobeying orders from the Commander-in-Chief, and fighting to destroy what the founding fathers had built. Imagine further, that this black terrorist group had written a new constitution for the new country they envisioned, and in that constitution, it stated that all white people born in their country would be subject to slavery subordination. After this black group loses the war that they triggered, would you then erect statues in their honor? Would you create holidays in their memory? 

    All the things in the above imaginary scenario are exactly what the Confederacy did, but, obviously, with the races reversed. So, why is it that we honor these men, who were traitors in every sense of the meaning? Why are we honoring men whom we would have given life sentences to had they been the imaginary black group presented above? Why are the country-dividing, Negro oppressing, leaders of the Confederacy still being honored … but a man like William Lloyd Garrison is not? 

   Memorials, holidays, and statues should never honor those who sought to divide people, destroy a country, and permanently oppress. Memorials and holidays should be reserved for people or events that were seeking to bring peace and healing to people, or to a broken nation. William embodies everything mentioned in that last sentence. So, in my estimation, it seems a no-brainer to have “William Lloyd Garrison Day,” or “Liberator Day” added to our list of federal holidays just as Juneteenth recently was. My dream would be to have all Confederate holidays scrubbed from the books, but, sadly, I’m sure there are still many Americans who feel that Confederate leaders somehow still deserve to be honored. So, I may never have that part of my dream realized, but I would certainly love to work towards my dream of adding a federal holiday to our calendar for Mr. Garrison. I figured his birthday, December 10th, would be the perfect day for it! So, I have started this change.org petition with the hope that this dream will one day become a reality. Those who are in favor of honoring William Lloyd Garrison, in the grand way that he deserves, please be kind enough to add your signature to this petition!

Thank you for your time and your consideration!