Henry Highland Garnet Park

This is a community park developed by the Special Impact Neighborhood Improvement Program and the Department of Recreatoin and Parks dedicated to the memory of Henry Highland Garnet by the Henry Highland Garnet Neighborhood Council. <br><br> Henry Highland Garnet was the son of an enslaved African chief born in Delaware in 1815. He became a Presbyterian preacher and lecturer. His famous speech delivered to the Convention of Free Men of Color at Buffalo, New York in 1843 was:<br><br> Brethren, arise! Arise! Stand up for your lives and liberties. Now is the day and the hour. Let every slave in this land do this and the days of slavery are numbered. You cannot be more oppressed than you have been. You cannot suffer greater cruelties than you have already. Rather than die free men than to live and be slaves. Remember that you are four million.<br><br> He was recognized far and near, carrying his message to England in 1850. He proceeded to Jamaica to toil as a missionary. He was later to serve as a Presbyterian minister in Washington and New York City. After the Civil War he became a recorder of deeds. He was appointed representative of the United States government to Liberia where he died in 1882 soon after undertaking his duties.