Dr. John Garrison Marks ’10, a historian and author of “Thy Will Be Done: George Washington’s Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory,” will be the keynote speaker for the University of Lynchburg’s 2026 Commencement ceremonies.
Undergraduate Commencement will be held at 9 a.m. on Thursday, May 7, and the graduate ceremony will be held at 9 a.m. on Friday, May 8. Marks will speak at the undergraduate and graduate ceremonies, both of which will be held on Shellenberger Field.
Marks graduated from Lynchburg with bachelor’s degrees in history and Spanish and a minor in museum studies. He also was a Westover Honors Fellow. He has a master’s degree and PhD — both in history — from Rice University.
His work has been published in TIME, Smithsonian magazine, The Washington Post, and other periodicals. In addition to “Thy Will Be Done,” he is the author of “Black Freedom in the Age of Slavery: Race, Status, and Identity in the Urban Americas” and coeditor of “Race and Nation in the Age of Emancipations: An Atlantic World Anthology.”
Marks has worked for the American Association of State and Local History for the past nine years, most recently as vice president of research and engagement. In May, he will transition to a part-time role at the organization, director of the Public History Research Lab, so he can focus on promoting “Thy Will Be Done” and working on his next book.
Since 2017, Marks’ work has included numerous projects related to America’s 250th anniversary, which will be celebrated on July 4.
“Over the last several years, we’ve developed several resources to help history museums, historical societies, and other history organizations make the most of the unique opportunities this anniversary offers — and, more recently, to navigate its many challenges,” he said.
Marks added, “I always encourage audiences to think about this anniversary as an opportunity. It’s a chance to reacquaint ourselves with a fuller, more interesting version of the American past, and to consider what we need to do to make sure museums and historical societies are still here to preserve and share it in the future.”
“Thy Will Be Done,” released this week by The University of North Carolina Press, addresses the complicated legacy of America’s first president — a debate that has persisted since the country’s founding.
“My book tells the story of Americans’ centuries-long struggle to reckon with slavery’s place in George Washington’s legacy,” Marks said. “While the controversies over how we confront Washington’s and other founders’ involvement in slavery have at times felt unprecedented, nothing could be further from the truth.
“In reality, Americans have been arguing about what Washington’s legacy of slavery should mean for us since Washington was still alive. We’ve always used Washington to make broader arguments about the nation and make points about the problems of the present.”
Lately, Marks has been making the rounds on podcasts and at museums, historic sites, and bookshops, talking about Washington’s legacy and “Thy Will Be Done.” So far, he said, the reception has been positive.
“There’s been real interest in this history in ways I never expected,” he said. “The fact that controversies over Washington are so visible recently — the removal of a slavery exhibit from the President’s House site in Philadelphia, for example — has created new opportunities for me to share the insights from the book with people who are suddenly very eager to understand the broader context around these events.
“The book doesn’t just address Washington’s history with race and slavery, but also touches more broadly on questions of public memory, commemoration, the place of history in American life; these themes are central to the upcoming 250th anniversary, so I’m excited to see how things develop from here.”
For his Commencement addresses, Marks will temporarily set Washington and the 250th aside.
“I’ll be speaking broadly about the critical importance of reclaiming our time and humanity in a chaotic, distracted world,” he said. “As algorithms compete for an ever-greater share of our attention, and as artificial intelligence begins to creep into more and more parts of our lives, we risk losing touch with some of the very things that make us human — connection, empathy, and deep thinking.
“So, I’ll be speaking about how important it is to rededicate ourselves in both our professional and personal lives to deep work, to fostering connection, and, more than anything else, to reading.”
