RIP Gloria Richardson —"the lady general of civil rights"

We say farewell to a remarkable civil rights leader, Gloria Richardson— a woman who used her powerful voice for the Movement. She passed away July 15 at age 99.

During a three-year period, she led protests against racial segregation and used her confrontational voice to speak up for civil rights in her Maryland community, in what became known as "The Battle for Cambridge."

Her tactics, courage and voice had a profound influence on the Civil Rights Movement.

In 1961, she was a 39-year-old divorced mother with two daughters, working in her family's pharmacy and grocery store in the Black section of Cambridge, Maryland —?a?town of about 11,000 people on the Eastern Shore.

That summer, Freedom Riders — organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee —?came to Cambridge. Richardson attended workshops and special sessions with other activists, learning how to protest and withstand clashes with mobs, including armed self-defense.

In June 1962 she became chair of the local SNCC affiliate, the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee. She worked to apply pressure on local, state and federal officials for housing desecration and a range of other issues: education, jobs opportunities, and health care.

By the summer of 1963, racial tensions erupted into violent clashes in the community. There were arsons, shootings, and Molotov cocktails, and the National Guard was called in.

She became known for her her "verbal attacks" — she once sarcastically described the "meaningless smiles" of national leaders who pretended to care but failed to produce substantial change.

A photo of Richardson during one tense standoff shows her shoving a bayonet-tipped rifle away from her face —?the now-iconic image made national news and captured her fearlessness. Ebony called her “the lady general of civil rights."

Richardson asked President John F. Kennedy to visit Cambridge to call for calm and prevent civil war. Instead she was summoned to the White House.

When segregationist Alabama governor George Wallace, seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, came to Cambridge in the spring of 1964, Richardson was among the protesters who were tear-gassed and arrested.

She was arrested three times. She received death threats. Nothing stopped her.

She became known for her her "verbal attacks" — she once sarcastically described the "meaningless smiles" of national leaders who pretended to care but failed to produce substantial change.

“When I was called to speak, I went to the front, picked up the microphone, and all I was able to say was "hello." Before I could say another word, an NAACP official took the mic away.”

Like six other women leaders in the Movement, she was allowed to sit on the stage at the August 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom — but not to speak.?

“When I was called to speak,” she later said, “I went to the front, picked up the microphone, and all I was able to say was 'hello.’ Before I could say another word, an NAACP official took the mic away.”

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed by Johnson that July, and the National Guard troops withdrew from Cambridge.

Richardson left the Movement that year and moved to New York City, where she worked in Harlem on anti-poverty issues, economic development, and programs for the elderly.

Rest in peace, Gloria Richardson. Your voice will not be forgotten.

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My name is Dana Rubin, and I help women put their ideas into the world powerfully and persuasively. I’m the founder of?The Speaking While Female Speech Bank, and the editor of the forthcoming?Speaking While Female: 50?Extraordinary?Speeches by American Women?(Real Clear | Spring 2022).

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