Fanny Garrison Villard (1844–1928)

Helen Frances "Fanny" Garrison Villard was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of prominent publisher William Lloyd Garrison and his wife Helen Eliza Benson. She arrived at the height of her father's anti-slavery campaign and grew up both inspired by it and aware of its perils. She was educated at the Winthrop School and taught the piano, a skill she used to help support the family. In 1866, she married Henry Villard, then a newspaper reporter and later a successful businessman and the publisher of the New York Evening Post and the Nation. The couple had four children and settled in New York City. Her husband's wealth gave Fanny Villard the leisure and means to pursue a life of social activism and philanthropy. His purchase of the two papers in 1881 brought her into frequent contact with national political leaders. She became a consumer advocate and was especially concerned with educational opportunities for women and Black Americans. She played a active role in the founding of Barnard College, Radcliffe College, and Hampton Institute in Virginia, among others. She joined the women's suffrage movement, serving as president of the William Lloyd Garrison Equal Suffrage Club in New York. In 1909, with her son Oswald Garrison Villard, she became a co-founder of the NAACP. With Jane Addams, she co-founded the Women's Peace Party and opposed USA involvement in World War I, leading peace parades, giving speeches, and lobbying politicians. After the USA entered the war, she devoted her time and money to refugee relief and aid for conscientious objectors. In 1924, she published William Lloyd Garrison on Non-Resistance, which included her own memories of her father and a piece by Leo Tolstoy, What I Owe to Garrison.