Celebrate civil rights, freedom at John Brown Day

May 09, 2025 –

A statue of John Brown, the abolitionist and uprising, sits next to his grave at the historic site John Brown Farm outside of the Lake Placid. Photo by David Escobar.

A North Country organization is holding its annual birthday party for John Brown on Saturday. The famous abolitionist spent the later years of his life in the adirondack. He was executed in Virginia in 1859, but his body was buried in his house in Adirondack, now the historical site John Brown Farm State directly in front of the village of Lake Placid.

Ceremonies for John Brown Day 2025 start at 2 p.m. You can find complete event details on the John Brown lives! Website.

David Escobar went to the farm to talk to Martha Swan, the managing director of John Brown Lives!, The group behind the event. They talked about Brown’s legacy in the region and about what they would expect at this year’s edition of John Brown Day.

Your conversation was processed for space and clarity.

David EscobarCelebrate civil rights and freedom at the John Brown Day

Martha Swan: John Brown was initially a white man, and many people are surprised to find out that a white man sacrificed his life, devoted his entire adult life to end slavery and life and dignity and full humanity of black people. In the course of his life, he was involved in various parts of the United States and Canada with the black community. He was very active on the U -Bahn. And since the country did not loosen its slavery or its commitment to expanding slavery, John Brown was increasingly convinced that more dramatic actions were required than moral overusion or underground railway activities. So he joined the fight in Kansas to ensure or guarantee that Kansas is approved as a free state in which slavery was not approved in the union. And then he drove with the aim of confiscating weapons and inspiring people who were enslaved to flee the Appalachian Mountains to Harpers Ferry. I think you would call you guerrilla camps. And when this “scheme of justice and benevolence from 1846”, as it was called, when the distribution of 120,000 hectares mainly land in Essex County to Free Black York to try to avoid a discriminatory right of ownership of the few dozen dozen families, black families from Troy or New York City were set here. John Brown got wind of it, and he spoke to Garrett Smith, who is the one who donated all of this country, and said: “I want to raise there and be a friend and a neighbor and a support for this community.” And he lived in a multirassical community, and that was very important to him.

David Escobar: So here we are here on John Browns Farm in Lake Placid and I know that there has been a tradition that pretended for several, many years to honor John Brown, which will take place on Saturday. Can you talk a little about how this tradition started and how it translates today?

SWAN: In 1922, black leaders of the Naacp Philadelphia chapter came to the conclusion that here was this white man who laid down his life for black people. And that was the highlight of the Jim Crow era and lynch murders and terrible discrimination and separation at that moment. Nevertheless, they had this vision that this is a man who has to be recognized who has to be recognized and honored. So in 1922, this tradition, on or around his birthday, that on May 9, to make an annual pilgrimage on May 9th, to come here where we are and put a wreath on his grave. And it is best to say that it took decades. And then the late writer Russell Banks and some other people revived tradition. They said we had to revive this annual redeeming to the values ​​for which John Brown stood.

John Brown lives! Executive Director Martha Swan and JBL! The art and cultural program director Anna Forsman, who stands in front of the barn at the historic location John Brown Farm State. Photo by David Escobar.

Escobar: Who are some of the people who will be honored tomorrow? And is there something extraordinary at this year’s event?

SWAN: I think what is unusual and atypical are the times when we live. The individuals we honor are exceptional. What makes Saturday and Diane Noisax, Kelly Metzgar and Peggy Shepard present with the Spirit of John Brown Freedom Award is the topicality of their work. In the name of immigrants and new Americans, on behalf of the LGBTQIA+ Community and on behalf of the people who experience the main load of environmental racism, they have done work in the ditches. And the communities with which they work and for which they are in the fire line. And so to honor them and thank them and be inspired by them.