Kerri Greenidge, a professor at Tufts University, will give a talk entitled "Go Forth and Enlighten Your Brethren! Black New England, William Lloyd Garrison, and the Legacy of Radical Abolition" in this, the fourth annual lecture sponsored by the Friends of William Lloyd Garrison. The annual lecture marks the birthday of the abolitionist and newspaper editor who was born in Newburyport. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Greenidge, the Tufts University Mellon associate professor in the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora, also co-directs the African American Trail Project and Tufts’ Slavery, Colonialism, and Their Legacies Project.

"The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in An American Family" was recently listed as a best book of the year by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Boston Globe. It was the 2023 semi-finalist for the Stone Book Award from the Museum of African American History in Boston, and the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award from Phi Beta Kappa. “The Grimkes” was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award, in addition to the J. Anthony Lukas Award. Greenidge’s writings have appeared in the Massachusetts Historical Review, the Radical History Review, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and the Guardian.

Her previous book, “Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter,” won the 2020 Mark Lynton History Prize, among other awards.

To highlight the week, the Newburyport Public Library will provide a Recommended Reading list of books available for adults and children relating to Garrison, the abolitionist movement and racial justice.

The Garrison Lecture is made possible by support of the Newburyport Preservation Trust and grants from the Mass Humanities Expand Massachusetts Stories program and Newburyport Trust Fund Commission and a donation from Newburyport Bank. This event is sponsored by the Friends of William Lloyd Garrison with media support from the Museum of Old Newbury.