A Nonnegotiable Right
This chapter discusses Richardson’s decision to boycott a referendum vote initiated by white Cambridge residents to maintain segregated public accommodations. She argued that the referendum was a tyrannical action by the white majority over the black minority and that it undermined the latter’s constitutional rights. She advocated a boycott of the vote, and most black voters agreed with her. Black and white critics of the boycott alleged that Richardson behaved irresponsibly by encouraging voters to stay away from the polls, a stance they considered unnecessarily radical and ultimately counterproductive to the national civil rights movement. The chapter also covers Richardson’s participation in the March on Washington and one of the speeches she gave a few weeks before the march in which she outlined in detail her social, economic, and political philosophies concerning black liberation.