Ellen Garrison: An Upstander for Justice

Narrated by Obiageli Akubude

Ellen Garrison grew up in the Robbins House and was a Freedmen’s School teacher in the South as part of the American Missionary Association1. In 1866, after facing racial discrimination in a Baltimore train station, Ellen was determined to seek justice. She filed a lawsuit against the railroad after she and a fellow schoolteacher were “forcibly ejected” from a waiting room, and the case became a legal test of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. On these events, Ellen wrote several letters to her colleagues. These are some of the things she wrote2:

“This is the first time that I have felt it to be my duty to make any serious complaint but an outrage has just occurred which demands attention.  It was nothing less than the forcible ejection of myself and Miss Anderson from the ladies’ sitting room at the depot of the Philadelphia Baltimore & Washington Railroad in the city of Baltimore…”

“[we] took our seats in the ladies’ room from which we were thrown out –  literally thrown.  We came up in [the] next train with the impression that we had been outrageously abused, and insulted and hurt also, as it was done in a very rough manner.  I feel the effects of it still.”

“We were injured in our persons as well as our feelings for it was with no gentle hand that we were assisted from that room…

I made up my mind to make a complaint to the Superintendent of the Freedman’s Bureau General Stannard whose headquarters are at Baltimore.  I did so, in person.  He said that it ought to be attended to.  The General also told me that he would do all in his power.  He also says he wishes to ascertain whether respectable people have rights which are to be respected.  Thus you see it will be a question of much importance.  It will not benefit us merely as individuals but it will be a stand point for others.

…

It is different from the past.  We can now give evidence.”

And thus, Ellen took legal action to question the strength of the new law.

“[The] people of Baltimore came to our aid in a very unexpected manner.  They said they would assist us with their money to continue the case and by no means to give in but test it and find out if we have civil rights or not.  They said it concerned them all.

…

We did not once lose sight of our position, but maintained our dignity.

…

we contend against outrage and oppression wherever we find it, firmly standing and giving away for the rudest shocks”4

Unfortunately, Ellen’s suit was dismissed. Throughout the Reconstruction Period, southern courts and lawmakers failed to duly uphold the civil protections promised to African Americans by the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (and later, the 14th Amendment). Even though the lawsuit didn’t see the success Ellen and the people of Baltimore had hoped for, her dedication to seeking the same protections that activists would fight for in the coming decades is no less significant, and her story is an early landmark in a huge movement that continues today2.

Thank you for educating yourself about Concord’s African-American and anti-slavery history.

Works Cited:

1 Concord Museum. “The Letters of Ellen Garrison.” YouTube, YouTube Video, 1 June 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTCUOj3LEo0. Accessed 25 May 2023.

2 “Ellen Garrison Exhibit – the Robbins House.” The Robbins House, 7 Mar. 2019, robbinshouse.org/projects/ellen-garrison-exhibit/. Accessed 25 May 2023.

3 Forbes, Ella. African American Women during the Civil War. Routledge, 2013.

4 Quotes.docx, Ellen. “Copy of Ellen Quotes.docx.” Google Docs, 2019, docs.google.com/document/d/11s4GQrii-ua8pOGG3o31zQvMQ1_IQecc/edit. Accessed 25 May 2023.