A grassroots group of community members is working together to help Concord do the right thing and joyously name our new middle school after our native daughter and heroine Ellen Garrison. Come join us and Stand Up for Ellen!

Ellen Garrison was born in Concord, Massachusetts , daughter and granddaughter of 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, administrator, and champion of civil rights, Ellen Garrison stood for Concord's values, and contributed to our town's rich history.

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

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.

Ellen Garrison was born in Concord, Massachusetts , daughter and granddaughter of enslaved men. Her Grandfather Cesar Robbins was a Patriot of Color who we believe stood at the Old North Bridge on April 19, 1775. . 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"

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.

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….”