Gloria Richardson, a civil rights pioneer, was chosen to receive the Ivy Young Willis and Martha Willis Dale Award.
Each year, the history and political science department recognizes a woman who has made a great contribution to the civic life of her society and this year, Richardson exemplifies this and will be the recipient.
“Gloria Richardson is best known as the leader of the Cambridge Movement, a local human rights struggle in Maryland’s Eastern Shore town of Cambridge during the early 1960s,” Dr. Joseph R. Fitzgerald, assistant professor of history and political science, said in an email.
“Under Richardson’s leadership, the Cambridge Movement established the goal of overthrowing Cambridge’s racial caste system that included inadequate living wages, poor housing, and lack of health care. The Cambridge Movement utilized the tactics of passive resistance and armed self-defense to achieve these goals. Importantly, the social justice focus of the Cambridge Movement, along with its utilization of passive resistance and armed self-defense tactics signaled the beginning of the Black Power phase of the modern Black liberation struggle.”
The award began in the year of 1992 with the help of William G. Willis, the father of Martha Dale, a woman who worked as the alumni director for many years and had passed away in 2012.
Willis’ wife was actively involved in the League of Women Voters and the World Affairs Council. He combined his love of political science and his late wife’s interests.
The award is in honor of Ivy Young Willis, a teacher who inspired the teaching of reading on public television, and her belief in a woman’s empowerment and talent for improving many aspect of public affairs.
Richardson is the 22nd recipient of this award. Throughout Richardson’s life, she has been presented with two honorary doctorates and many citations for her activism in human rights.
“Gloria Richardson was born in Baltimore, Md., in May 1922 to John and Mable Hayes. John was a pharmacist, and Mable was a piano teacher and homemaker,” Fitzgerald said. “In 1938, at the age of 16, Gloria graduated high school. In the fall of that same year, Richardson began her studies at Howard University, a historically black institution in Washington, D.C. She went on to earn a B.A. in Sociology in 1942.”
“She exited the Civil Rights Movement in the mid-1960s and relocated to New York City,” Fitzgerald said. “Until a few years ago, she worked in the city’s Department for the Aging. She was also very active in her labor union, serving as a delegate and a role model and mentor to the union’s membership.”
There will be an award ceremony and lecture in honor of Richardson and the Ivy Young Willis and Martha Willis Dale Award on Wednesday, April 8 at 4:30 p.m. in the Mansion with a reception to follow.
