63 Facts About Gloria Richardson

The next year Gloria Richardson moved to New York City, where she worked locally in Harlem on civil rights and economic development.

Gloria Richardson St Clair Hayes was born in 1922 to John and Mable Hayes in Baltimore, Maryland, the largest city in the state.

Gloria Richardson's mother was part of the affluent St Clair family of Cambridge, Maryland, which owned and operated a successful grocery store and funeral home.

Gloria Richardson's ancestors had been free people of color since before the Civil War, and owned extensive rental property.

From a young age, Gloria Richardson had a strong personality nurtured by her parents and maternal grandparents.

Gloria Richardson developed a strong sense of community and started to form her own views on such human rights issues as racism.

Gloria Richardson's parents encouraged her to speak up and to be comfortable in front of large groups, such as performing at Sunday school programs.

Gloria Richardson became involved in social activism as a student protesting with others at the Peoples Drug store near campus because the store refused to hire Black workers.

When she divorced from Harry Gloria Richardson, she was a mother with two daughters.

Gloria Richardson worked at a pharmacy and grocery store owned by her family in a predominantly Black community.

Gloria Richardson has said that her motherhood sparked her activist role.

Gloria Richardson held a formal office in the Cambridge Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Gloria Richardson served as an adult adviser to the CNCC.

Gloria Richardson sought economic and social justice in housing, education, job opportunity, and health care.

Gloria Richardson was known for verbal attacks, describing national leaders as presenting "meaningless smiles" due to their failure to gain substantial change.

At first Gloria Richardson rarely participated in civil disobedience, because she could not accept the original SNCC nonviolence rules.

The protests did not yield results until Gloria Richardson was chosen to lead the movement and CNAC.

Gloria Richardson provided information to CIG and SNCC about how Cambridge's political system operated and the opinions of the Black community.

Gloria Richardson's daughter acted as a spark in Richardson's activist journey.

Gloria Richardson was determined to involve herself in these social justice issues.

Gloria Richardson attended workshops, and special sessions where activists methodically trained for non-violence, to withstand the hatred of mobs, who often used slurs and demeaning acts to prevent peaceful assembly.

Gloria Richardson was one of more than 50 people who stood trial for charges of disorderly conduct.

Gloria Richardson once said that "revolts seemed to be the only thing that America understands, and the nation's racial problems made revolts unavoidable".

In June 1962, Gloria Richardson was asked to help organize the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee, the first adult-led affiliate of SNCC.

Gloria Richardson would be one of the first leaders to publicly question nonviolence as a tactic.

Gloria Richardson said in a later interview on why she was committed to CNAC's leadership reflecting the community.

Gloria Richardson was focused on determining the priorities of the Black community, reinforced by a lesson she learned from her grandfather which was to learn about the important issues the members of a community care about most.

The Attorney General, representatives of the State Of Maryland, local black leadership-including Gloria Richardson, and elected Cambridge officials were all signatories.

Gloria Richardson took a controversial stance on the issue as she announced that the CNAC would not be taking part in the referendum.

However, Gloria Richardson was firm in her belief that her White neighbours should not be deciding on Black rights.

Gloria Richardson claimed that there would often be White members who wanted to educate themselves on the issue and would ask about the civil rights struggle.

Gloria Richardson was selected as an honoree at the March on Washington on August 22,1963.

Gloria Richardson played a big role in the Kennedy administration's decision to work with the CNAC as she initiated a series of negotiations to help Cambridge residents come out from under Jim Crow.

Gloria Richardson claimed that people working for the Kennedy administration tried to intimidate her into leaving the movement by threatening to reveal embarrassing gossip about her, including intimate details about her divorce and her affair.

Gloria Richardson sent word to the administration that if the press ran that story, she would indeed resign from CNAC, but she would not go without a fight.

In December 1963 Gloria Richardson attended a national meeting of SNCC leaders in Atlanta, where they discussed the future direction of the organization.

Gloria Richardson offered to integrate schools, ensure that a Black person was "hired in the State Employment Office, make an application for a federal loan for a "Negro housing project", pass a public accommodations ordinance, and name a biracial commission to work on the other problems that could not be solved immediately by legislation", in exchange for a year-long suspension of civil demonstrations.

Gloria Richardson rejected committing to stopping demonstrations unless there was a full desegregation of schools and complete fairness in job opportunities.

Gloria Richardson said, "We wish to make it unalterably clear that we will determine, and not the political structure of the city, who shall speak for the Negro community".

Gloria Richardson was criticized during and after the Cambridge movement on her role as a female leader.

Gloria Richardson disagreed strongly with King, Kennedy, and many others who mistakenly thought that she was an advocate for violence.

Gloria Richardson believed in nonviolence as a first step in demonstrations, but encouraged physical force as self-defense if confronted with threats.

People around her noted that if Gloria Richardson was on "your side, you didn't need anybody else".

Gloria Richardson was criticized by most radical Black male activists, who tended to be conservative in terms of gender roles.

Gloria Richardson's actions were perceived to be inappropriate for a woman.

Gloria Richardson's contribution helped to reshape the stereotypical role of women.

Gloria Richardson laid the groundwork for African Americans as female politicians and feminists, and people of the LGBTQ community.

Gloria Richardson demonstrated that even women who lived in small towns have a voice.

Gloria Richardson married Frank Dandridge, a photographer she had become acquainted with during the demonstrations, and settled with him there.

In New York, Gloria Richardson worked at an advertising agency before taking a job with the New York City Department for the Aging.

Gloria Richardson helped ensure businesses complied with laws that affected seniors.

Gloria Richardson was advising the Black Action Federation, CNAC's successor.

Gloria Richardson continued to pay attention and stay engaged in current politics and social justice events.

Gloria Richardson was frustrated by what seemed like a lack of progress since her own work in the 1960s.

Gloria Richardson believed that these actions remain necessary in America today where Black citizens continue to face inequities in the "criminal justice system, housing, health care, and other areas compared with their White counterparts".

Gloria Richardson's legacy is less known than many other women in the movement such as Rosa Parks and Dorothy Height.

Gloria Richardson believes this is the reason why Richardson stepped aside when she felt that she could be of no further meaningful use in the movement.

Gloria Richardson was a featured speaker at the Reflection's banquet, where her remarks "brought 300 guests to their feet in a sustained standing ovation".

Gloria Richardson helped to establish a new image for Black women in the United States.

Gloria Richardson replaced the image of a long-suffering martyr with the image of a woman as a warrior.

When Gloria Richardson was asked how she would like to be remembered, she replied: "I guess I would like for them to say I was true to my belief in black people as a race".

Today, there is a mural placed left of center next to Dorchester native and Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman of Gloria Richardson boldly demanding justice.

Gloria Richardson died in New York on July 15,2021.