Pleasure Muse: Gloria Richardson

Tantalizing Trivia  

• She was a Civil Rights activist who led The Cambridge Movement in the 1960s.


• Honored for her leadership, she sat on stage at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.


• She grew up in Baltimore but was from a prominent family - of landowners, lawyers, and politicians - from the eastern shore of Maryland, who were free before the Civil War. 


• Gloria's father, John Hayes, died of a heart attack due to segregation which required him to drive further for medical attention - this was a turning point in her life.



• She attended Howard University and started social activism against segregation. During her early activism, Richardson was arrested three times. 

  
  


• In 1961, SNCC and The Freedom Rides came to her hometown of Cambridge, Maryland. She and her two daughters got involved in the movement.   


• In 1962, Richardson was asked to help organize the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee (CNAC), the first adult-led affiliate of SNCC.


• She was a passionate and fiery spokesperson who never minced words and always spoke truth to power as one of the only female leaders of a civil rights organization.  


• She was brave: rather than asking for civil rights, she asked for economic rights, and she publicly questioned nonviolence as a tactic. 


• The students – including her daughter – were committed to nonviolence and were attacked by mobs of armed white people. Subsequent freedom walks and sit-ins included armed black men who surrounded the students for protection; clashes escalated.


• During protests in 1963, Richardson was photographed pushing aside the bayonet and rifle of a National Guardsman; the picture went viral in the media, and she became an icon of the movement   


• She signed a peace treaty with Robert F. Kennedy and local officials after an uprising in Maryland for civil rights. 

Mirror Work: 

Look at yourself and repeat 2 Timothy 1:7: “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

Affirmations:

• I have the power to change my life. 


• This will pass. It won’t last. 


• I’m worthy of love and happiness.

Fear Not: A Playlist 

Self-Care Shopping List: 

Sign up for a self-defense class; if you have a daughter, sign her up too.

Didn’t catch the live recording of today’s episode? We don’t want you to miss out on getting the full experience. Check out the opening and
closing songs below.

Opening ⁠Song⁠

Closing ⁠Song