Conclusion

The conclusion highlights Gloria Richardson’s increasing public recognition for her human rights activism in Cambridge, Maryland, during the 1960s and her place in civil rights and Black Power histories. Also discussed are her views on some current social issues, including the Cambridge city government’s privatization of the public housing units she and other activists fought to get built. Richardson sees this as an example of government’s abrogation of its responsibility to serve and protect residents and politicians’ use of their power to undermine communities’ quality of life. She also shares her concerns about President Donald J. Trump. Although he presents himself as an authoritarian politician, his supporters either cannot or will not acknowledge this because they believe in the myth of American exceptionalism. Richardson argues that today’s activists must use creative tactics—including the strategic use of the vote—to resist the countless ways governments at all levels try to limit and restrict people’s freedoms and liberties.

Back to Work

The final chapter briefly touches on Richardson’s second divorce but focuses on her difficulties finding and keeping employment. After holding a series of jobs in various corporate and not-for-profit agencies, Richardson eventually earned a permanent civil service position with the City of New York, where she worked until the twenty-first century. In one way or another, all her jobs involved some kind of social justice. Over the last five decades, Richardson has paid close attention to social change movements, including Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter, and this chapter discusses her thoughts about them, particularly her view that young people have the capability and vision to lead the nation to greater freedom, just as young people did in the 1960s. She advises them to replicate the group-centered and member-driven model student activists employed in the early 1960s and to avoid becoming ideological.

Introduction

The introduction discusses Gloria Richardson’s social, economic, and political philosophies, particularly her secular humanism, on which her human rights activism was based. Attention is paid to how scholars have discussed and interpreted Richardson’s activism in the Cambridge movement and her philosophies, and why it is important to expand those interpretive frameworks, specifically with regard to gender dynamics as they pertain to her role as a civil rights leader of national stature.

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.

“You Will Not Be Able to Stay Home, [Sister]”

The chapter starts by describing Gloria Richardson’s new life in New York City, but the story quickly moves back to Cambridge, Maryland. There, in the summer of 1967, she facilitated Black Power activist H. Rap Brown’s visit to speak to black residents who were continuing their freedom struggle. A massive fire in the city’s black community on the night of Brown’s visit was caused by arson and not, as is popularly believed, by black people rioting. That summer also saw the first gathering of Black Power advocates from around the country at the National Conference on Black Power in Newark, New Jersey. Richardson attended this event and was excited about Black Power’s potential to push the freedom struggle forward. Finally, the chapter covers her assessment of Black Power, specifically, its emphasis on black consciousness, and Stokely Carmichael’s and other Black Nationalists’ political strategies for achieving black liberation.

Vanguard

Richardson’s influence on the development of Black Power through ACT, an organization she cofounded with other radical activists in 1964, is the focus of this chapter. ACT’s goal was to provide aid and comfort to northern urban freedom campaigns, much as SNCC had done for local movements in the South. The chapter also analyzes ACT’s effect on the black liberation movement, particularly how it fostered the rise of militancy among younger activists who challenged moderates’ power to determine the civil rights movement’s goals, strategies, and tactics. Also covered is Richardson’s personal and working relationship with Malcolm X, who served as a consultant to ACT and was influenced by Richardson, as evidenced by his “ballot or bullet” speeches. Finally, the chapter discusses Richardson’s reasons for ending her active participation in the black liberation movement.

Shock Therapy, Round One

Commencing in early 1962, the Cambridge movement took shape with the aid of college students from beyond Maryland’s Eastern Shore who belonged to the bourgeoning student movement of the early 1960s. These students subscribed to the political philosophy of participatory democracy, whereby local people organized their own campaigns for black liberation. The most important student organization that assisted local movements was the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which worked directly with Gloria Richardson and the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee (CNAC), the organization that led the Cambridge movement. CNAC’s agenda, which was established through a needs assessment survey created by Richardson, identified a lack of access to jobs, poor housing, and segregated schools as the community’s main concerns. CNAC initiated voter education and registration drives to build community support for its freedom campaign, which white residents and white leaders resisted at every turn.

Dreams Deferred

This chapter covers Richardson’s life after she graduated from Howard University in 1942. During the next fifteen years, she made a number of decisions that reflected her family’s and society’s gender socialization, which included getting married, having children, and staying married when she would have preferred not to. Eventually, she rejected these gender expectations and divorced her husband. It was during this time that Richardson began routine race service through her activities in the Second Ward Recreational League, which worked to improve black residents’ quality of life in Cambridge’s segregated society. She also publicly raised concerns about the city’s racially segregated school system. These activities gave Richardson valuable organizing experience and prepared her for civil rights activism. Her community advocacy work telegraphed her leadership style, which captivated the nation a few years later.

Creative Chaos

This chapter chronicles Richardson’s travels to northern cities to aid local activists who were building freedom movements based on the same issues addressed in Cambridge: jobs, housing, health care, and education. As such, the Cambridge movement was a model for the northern activists who developed Black Power, and they looked to Richardson as a leader they could emulate—notably, her counterprotest during George Wallace’s visit to Cambridge in May 1964. Through her use of “creative chaos”—a strategy that confused the Cambridge movement’s opponents—Richardson solidified her reputation for effective human rights leadership. Gendered interpretations of her leadership and activism, as well as the role of gender in the civil rights movement more generally, are also covered, as is her relocation to New York City in 1964 when she married photojournalist Frank Dandridge.

Shock Therapy, Round Two

This chapter continues to detail the history of the social justice–focused Cambridge movement and white politicos’ use of laissez-faire gradualism to thwart it. It discusses Richardson’s growing influence in the Cambridge movement, particularly her ideas about who should be involved in the movement, what its goals should be, and what strategies and tactics should be used to achieve them. She rejected the politics of respectability, which stressed adherence to certain dress and personal behavior standards, and presented herself to white leaders, including Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, as an unflinching advocate for black liberation. This chapter also covers Richardson’s role in the “Treaty of Cambridge,” a formal agreement between city leaders and CNAC that outlined the steps white leaders would take to address the city’s racial issues.