1872-1949 Editor

Family Fame and Fortune.

As the grandson of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison and the son of Civil War correspondent, publisher, and railroad magnate Henry Villard, Oswald Garrison Villard inherited both crusading liberal views and the means to promote them. He was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, and educated in private schools in New York. After earning undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard in 1893 and 1896 respectively, he became a newspaper reporter and then took over as the editor of his father's New York Evening Post. He was dedicated to the advancement of blacks, equal rights for women, birth control, prison reform, and civil liberties. He opposed American entry into both world wars.

Unsettling New York.

Villard's greatest expose occurred in 1910, when his investigation of the New York State legislature president and Republican majority leader, Jotham P. Allds, uncovered rampant graft. It led to the first...