At Charleston’s Zion Church, during the Sumter 1865 celebration

James Redpath and Martin Delaney,  organized an event held at the Zion Church, billed as  a welcoming of Garrison.   “It was, however intended as a statement of civic intent and to impress the visiting journalists with the capacity of the black community for incorporation into the body politic.  The crowd spilled so far into the side streets that Garrison could not get anywhere close to the platform until he was physically lifted onto the shoulders of the spectators and passed from one to another until he reached the stand to deafening cheers and rejoicing…..  Addressing himself to the entire congregation, he made a solemn pledge that ‘the American Government will stand by you to establish your freedom against whatever claims your former masters will bring, and that he would demand for them, for as long as God gave him, ‘reason and strength’, everything claimed ‘for the whitest of the white in this country’ “.  (All on Fire, by Henry Mayer, pgs 582-3)