21 PLEASURE PRINCIPLES | Day 19 | Gloria Richardson

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

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Vanessa. Welcome to Black History, boot

(01:19):
camp. This is day 17 day 19.
Just kidding. Jus day, 19 of 21 days of
pleasure, of principle of History, Sisterhood of deep and
wonderful conversation of powerful powerful organizing

(01:44):
Most grateful for the calls thisseason and for the text messages
and for the Instagram post, and for people who are out there,
making the hard decisions in their life, to prioritize their
own care, their own self love their own desires.

(02:04):
It is not easy. And I hope that there's one
thing that one of us or somebodyin history has said to you or
one of our guests. Akers has said to you, that has
given you exactly what you needed to do.
What is necessary in this momentin your life.
And I'm just personally very grateful for this walk together

(02:27):
and I learned so much for today's episode and I am super
excited to share this with you. How you doing?
All right, I had already startedwalk in and it's just like I'm
doing good. I'm feeling kind of slow today

(02:47):
but it's like one of those days where you don't always have to
walk fast. So you would like as long as
you're like just moving you can just move.
So I'm just like well this is a song tearing type of day and I
even learned like a couple of days ago that the word Kanter.
It comes from the medieval timeswhen people were making a
pilgrimage to the Holy Land and when they were passed the

(03:09):
villages along the way, people would say to them.
I'm not going to say right, but it was something like awesome.
Hunter and admit, are you going to the Holy Land?
And then people would say yes and then that's how the word.
Yes, we are going to the hole. But the link is in the stop this

(04:00):
podcast. This is going to be
okay without the Black Panther Party,

(04:34):
and the black liberation. James Brown was like a
barbershop quartet before he came out when I'm Black and I'm
Proud. And I say why I love that, we're
even talking about this. I have to bring this into our
just for this to go because I want knowledge.
You said so let him just was announced this morning that he
was victorious in his Harlem seat for city council.

(04:55):
And I don't know if you all havebeen following but he was one of
the Central Park five. And so it's a huge deal that
he's come. But it's a bigger deal that in
2012. Girltrek had a little-known
ciao, Challenge called The Battle Royale, and one of the
winners of the Battle Royale was, you says Mom Sharon
Sloane's? Yeah.

(05:15):
Way back in 2012. She told me there, she was like,
my son is one of the Central Park five and she was like,
yeah, we're fighting for justice.
And like so Medusa's before the operative earnings film before
and stuff like that long ago, this woman told me 11 years ago
about her son and she was overcoming cancer, a bunch of
stuff and she was walking in a battle royale.
I just want to uplift their entire family today.

(05:38):
Look, we out here talk about James Brown.
We talk about all of the Liberation that's happening and
I was just like, oh wow, we're going to talk about this today
on this day where Yusef salaam was, where he was voted in.
So just shout out to Harlem and shout out to the Central Park
five for surviving a shout-out to everybody who's done
Liberation and definitely shoutout to James Brown.

(06:00):
Yes, I love this story and so I don't think there's no Black
Panther Party. Without Stokely Carmichael.
Sam black is beautiful. I'm Black and I'm Proud.
And who later became Kwame nkrumah.
Now, call me improve my best forpresident because but what was
it called /? Stokely Carmichael became

(06:23):
somebody Texas. All right?
So Vanessa Oakley Carmichael andlearned.
Radical Liberty Liberation Theory from the one.
And only Gloria Richardson he went as a part of snake to
Cambridge to the Cambridge movement.
It was the most radical thing that was Heinrich Massachusetts.

(06:48):
Cambridge, Maryland, Home, of, Harriet Tubman.
Whatever we love you Audrey yes,Race Street, Cambridge Maryland,
Eastern Shore site of the Underground Railroad birthplace

(07:10):
of the one and only Harriet Tubman was a woman.
There is a woman named Gloria Richardson.
I just want you to imagine. She had a stunningly.
Beautiful face, high cheekbones.Big eyes.
She wore exclusively a uniform of high-waisted jeans and a

(07:37):
white working shirt. Sure as well, because she is a
worker, okay, of Y, but no sir, and high-waisted jeans.
Are these cute little uniform asfunny story about that uniform.
We will get to it, but when she was one of five women invited to

(08:00):
sit on the stage at the March onWashington, because they had to
invite her, they did not want toinvite her.
They had to invite her one of A white Council of citizens
council member said, we hated talk.
We hated working with her, but we couldn't work without her.
This is who we talk about what her high-waisted jeans on and

(08:21):
her but don't show her white shirt, her crisp white shirt,
okay? They invited her.
And here's something to know about this.
When she sat on that stage as one of five women in this crowd
of hundred, thousands of people hundreds of thousands of people.
One of the five women honored inthe Civil Rights Movement,
Didn't, they told her she neededto wear a dress?

(08:43):
Vanessa they told her don't wearthem Jean because it's too
radical. Don't wear those jeans.
So she says she compromised or she wore a jean skirt.
I was just floored by that little tiny.
Little some of you have never heard that name in my life.

(09:05):
Organ. I don't even know who you
talking about. I don't even know where
Cambridge Maryland is a Let me tell you this story right here
Gloria Richardson was born in Baltimore.
Okay, first of all, all we all know who Gloria Rhodes is in is
when you think about the pictures from the Civil Rights

(09:26):
era, you know, you have seen a picture with a national
Guardsman with his gun drawn bayonet on the which is the
stabber part, the the stabber, Nice Part on the end of the gun,
On the end of it and he got a woman yoked up with the gun
barrel and she's looking fiercerthan anybody you ever looked

(09:50):
before. And she got on her jeans at her
while you sir. Is she looking at us that is
Gloria Richardson. He became an icon Black
Liberation and icon of black power of icon of black feminism
and icon of Grassroots leadership.

(10:13):
My God. My God, it is not a coincidence.
That Malcolm X in his speech to the Grassroots.
That's the name of the speech. Mentioned her exclusively by
name Who is, who is Gloria Richardson, you say, who is Maya

(10:35):
Richardson, and how has he been written out of American History?
I'ma tell you why. First of all, she was born in
Baltimore, And she was born. Her mother was a part of the st.
Clair family. Okay.
I think she's born in 1920. 1922some like that.

(10:56):
Yo, listen walking podcast fact-checkers get on it and she,
and I can't see cause I can't belooking at my notes on the
phone, but I remember I was bornin Baltimore.

(11:20):
Cambridge Maryland. Where Harriet Tubman was born an
escaped by the way. That's where she left from the
Underground. Railroad, went up to
Philadelphia, that's where the girls track team walked 100
miles and five days Underground,Railroad from Cambridge
Maryland, there's some in the water there Vanessa, there's
some of the water I got the personal stuff.
I need to tell you about that kind of stuff.
Mostly what? I need to tell you.

(11:40):
But so listen, I believe it. Everything happens for a reason.
I liked it too, right? You know that Street.
Where that sister invited us into that restaurant.
That's Ray Street. That's racist.
Okay, I'm going to have to come.Yeah, it's going to be important
in a second. Okay.
Her mom is from the famous st. Clair family.

(12:01):
So, she born in Baltimore, but her mom is going to the famous
st. Clair family.
Now, the famous st. Clair family was the Black &
Boos YZ. They were wealthy.
They came from Cambridge and they were grocery store owners
in the second ward, which is theblack community in Cambridge.
Cambridge was segregated a long Race Street, it still is kind of

(12:25):
secondary, a long race. Street.
Okay. And the white people lived on
one side of a street and the black people lived on the other
side of a street. In fact, I actually think that
the black people are buying the building on the other side of
the Wi-Fi Teresa Street just even in protest but are in like
some semblance. But So she her family were own
the grocery stores and the and the funeral home, you know,

(12:49):
thanks to rich people. Tom from a legacy of activism in

(13:14):
America as a black woman, there's no way you are a lie.
If somebody somewhere somebody'sAuntie, somebody's Grandma,
somebody somewhere didn't say Hail to the mall.
There's no way you're alive by the way.
So she to came from a legacy of activism.
So her mom st. Clare her Grandpa st.
Clair they own all the grocery stores.

(13:36):
And so she has a great life growing up.
She had a great life and he was well educated, and she went to
Howard. Well, what happened was her?
Her family during the Great Depression.
Had to go back to Cambridge, because they're just like, well,
we know where our power base is involved for a man, taking it

(13:58):
it's the Great Depression, you know?
So they moved back to Cambridge.So she then went back incident
formative time in Cambridge. Well, she ended up going to
college. I guess where she went Howard
University? Where does all black Heroes go
now? For university university, And

(14:20):
she was at Howard in the 50s. When or I think it's 40 late 40s
and 50s where all of the Civil Rights stuff started to spark.
So, I'm talking protest that drug stores, like Woolworths
counters, kind of stuff. And he, as a student was
involved in all of the Civil Rights activism at Howard.

(14:41):
Well, she graduated, Howard, shegot married.
She had two daughters well and one of her daughters was named
Donna. She moved back to Cambridge.
Because even as an educated Howard graduate during the Great
Depression, she couldn't find those jobs.
It was hard for her. So you imagine if you are
uneducated, how hard it would have been.

(15:01):
So he, oh my goodness. She went back to Cambridge and
started working at one of her family's Pharmacy.
Because listen, that's what she had to do.
She went to go work at one of her family's pharmacies her
daughter, started, coming of age, and at that time in the
late 50s, early 60s, the Civil Rights Movement with on and

(15:22):
Poppin. Well, Nick, Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee came to Cambridge just like the welcome
walk. You all, you got to have a
regional strategy, they came to Cambridge and they said, we are
looking for people to organize amovement with us.
And they were looking for high school students.

(15:42):
Young people because it was a Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee Snick, okay. Shout out to Ella Baker Snick,
shout out to Diane Mass. So It came to Cambridge,
Maryland opened up a chapter andguess who joined Donna?
Donna's daughter. I mean, Donna Gloria Richardson

(16:07):
the daughter, Donna? She joined.
So she was started protesting and one of the things they were
protesting was yes the desegregation of schools.
So after 1954 Brown versus Boardof Education, that's just the
law. But these local folks, these
Cowboys ain't trying to have youyour kids.
To school with a kid. So we have to have a local

(16:28):
organizing strategy to actually be sick, desegregate schools,
and force the hand of the states, to apply the federal
finding to at the state level, because there's something called
sovereignty, State sovereignty. And so you had to force the hand
and create case law at the statelevel or create some kind of
treaty or agreement at the statelevel to D6 desegregate schools

(16:51):
because that was an Oklahoma Brown versus Board of Education.
Okay? So, So I can do not only are we
going to desegregate schools butreally the care about the
segregated schools as much as I care about us being able to live
and Thrive and have jobs and have access to healthcare.
Yes, her uncle and her father died, prematurely because they

(17:15):
could not have access to hospital.
It was traumatizing to her. We talked about the grief of
losing our father, and our uncle, and we talked about the
grief of Injustice in this series, it, radicalized her But
she was like schools are cute. Schools are good.
Yeah we're going to jump on the bandwagon of voting rights and

(17:37):
desegregating the schools because it's easy and it's
palatable and people like beautiful black children.
But we want to desegregate the hospitals and we want to
desegregate the public institutions and by the way we
won lower government jobs. We want to state jobs, we want

(17:57):
these are neighborhoods to be resource.
We will, I mean, he had a list of Lifestyle, radical systems
change for justice and equality.Oh no, no no, no.
The civil rights leaders Down inthe South did not like her
created her own agenda. I don't

(18:42):
What they didn't know is that itwasn't just her family, two
generations ago that were that were Liberation activist that
she came from the hometown of Harriet Tubman and that is born
of free black people before the Civil War.
Her family was free and that in that radical cauldron of

(19:02):
Liberation called the eastern shore of Maryland that there was
such a richness of culture that came over from people living on
those. Islands on the eastern shore of
Maryland who had come from the Ashanti Kingdom in Ghana.
There was such a liberty liberatory, ethos that whether
you were owned or whether you were free, the black people work

(19:23):
together and created the Abolitionist Movement.
That's where Frederick Douglass came from.
That's what Harriet Tubman camera.
So like I'm telling you all there's something in the water
on the eastern shore of Marylandand it was close in proximity to
the greatest seat of power, Washington DC.
So, Who is empowered on F? Kennedy and Robert Kennedy could

(19:47):
not stand Gloria. Richardson was negotiating with
time of like a nine-hour. Negotiations are Louis.
Everybody was there and he looked at her.
He said, do you ever smile like full?
Not that not being asked to smile not, not there, sir.
Not their opportunity said this to this woman.
Okay, so this is what happened. Vanessa, her daughter got

(20:09):
involved incident as they were doing peace.
People protest because it's the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee. So her daughter in high school
is doing peaceful protest. The white citizens of Cambridge
Maryland are responding to thesebabies with violence with
Molotov cocktails with shooting into their organ up into their

(20:32):
organizing buildings with shooting into their peaceful
protest. I mean, actual head on violence.
Well, if her dad and her uncle dying because they couldn't go
to the White hospital was not enough to radicalize you.
If somebody is throwing Molotov cocktails at your baby girl, in
high school because she's askingand get a fair education, it's

(20:54):
on and poppin, but enough to jeans, Vanessa button-up boots
for her Pleasure Principle is fear.
Not, there comes a time when fear has no place at the table.
There comes a time when your love for Life requires you to

(21:14):
take the boldest scariest actionthat you have ever taken in your
life. So, before we finish this I just
want to ask you Vanessa what right now.
Are you afraid of doing that? You have to do to live your
healthiest? Most fulfilled life.

(21:36):
Such a good question. Sometimes afraid of thing.
No. fear of just like, disappointing people were
missing out or Well, what happened to me?

(21:58):
Say no, it's just yeah. What do you think will happen if
you say no. Nothing, nothing, bad, quite
frankly like me, you know, it's perceived.

(22:23):
And if you're perceived as beingdisagreeable, what do you think
happens then? Yeah, all sorts of stuff, people
start to shut you out. People started to make you doubt
yourself a little yourself, there's all sorts of things.
You start to, not believe in yourself.
You start to tell that yourself the stories and your own mind.

(22:46):
And if you don't believe in yourself and people shout you
out, shut you out what happens then?
Become angry. Hmm.
And if you become an angry, whathappens?

(23:09):
You the well, I know, for myselfthere's a danger of just
becoming like disillusioned and hardened and just discourage in
this way that you tap out, or check out or that you even
become like self-destructive, oryou can channel that back into
something, productive, you know,I think it developed.
No, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.
Don't go back into that. It, I'm telling you what you're

(23:30):
scared of If you're if you then tap out.
What does that even look like for you if you just completely
tap out and get disconnected? I personally don't know.
I haven't tapped out yet. I ask you this because I feel

(23:56):
like we are all at a position right now.
Well, where there are things in our lives that we have to say no
to. We have to say no to fear in our
lives, and I don't know what that is.
I don't know if that's the fear of asking for a raise.
I don't know if that's the fear of being alone being alone.

(24:19):
I don't know if it's the fear ofgetting married leaving a
marriage. I don't know if it's the fear of
getting everything you asked forand nothing changed everything.
Yeah, I don't know what it is that, but I know that we all
have fear that we are going to have to act immediately.

(24:41):
From a systems perspective and aJustice perspective.
What do you think is killing ourdaughters?
From a systems and a Justice perspective.
Of like, if you could snap your fingers and change one thing

(25:02):
what is actually killing our daughters.
I think their mothers are tired and that their mothers are
unsupported and overwhelmed without resource and so in the
space of like just trying to raise themselves up, it's hard
to have the capacity to then show up in these like Extra

(25:22):
Spaces and extra ways for their kids.
I want to open up the phone lines because they're not
getting paid enough. Don't have any time off work
educated into the jobs that economy is now paying and are
consistently looked at to be theworkhorses of this world in a
way that we are Typecast into roles and responsibilities.

(25:44):
That just serve other people anddon't serve us.
So we are in a position, almost a cast of servitude.
Yes, The black women being relegated to a labor market
where we are in service of otherpeople, underpaid, and
undervalued is killing black girls.
I want to ask everybody, listening to us, what is killing

(26:07):
black girls from a systems perspective?
If we had to be brave, like, Georgia, Richardson, what are we
fighting for? What are we fighting for?
So, what my question is, is whatI'm a systems perspective.
Is killing black girls. What from SR9 if you want to

(26:29):
raise your hands star 9, if you want R9, we have something yet.
Star number systems perspective,what do you think Morgan?
I want to reserve it and give people space to talk because I
want to hear what people think from a systems perspective.
What is killing black girls? Raise your hand, hit star 9, hit
star 9. Let me finish up the story while

(26:52):
we're going to open up those lines. so Vanessa she went down
to Snick thumb conference in Atlanta and she said, yeah, I'm
gonna have to get involved. You not just going to have my
baby out here getting, you know,you're not just put don't put
our kids in these marches and put our kids, you know, she's
now 40 years old and she's just like, I'm if I'm a have to get

(27:16):
involved. She's middle-aged, I don't know
if she's 40. I'm 40.
So I'm imagining, she's our baby, my high school.
She something like that. She's a grown black woman and
she goes down to the Nonviolent Coordinating Committee their big
conference at getting all the press and everything.
And she goes, yeah, we're going to have to start something in
Cambridge that is, for people like me to get involved.

(27:39):
So, she started the Cambridge nonviolent action committee, the
Cambridge non-violence action. She got a thumbs-up from, you
know, from snake. Probably, Ella Baker Praises.
You got a thumbs-up from Snick. So, By the way, she talked to
dr. King to and said, we need help

(28:00):
at Cambridge. They're bombing our kids, and he
did not agree to come and help her.
He said that he had to stay focused and stay on the
strategy. So she was like that.
I'll do it so she comes back up to Maryland and she starts
something called the Cambridge movement that was really led by
the Cambridge nonviolent action committee and you got involved

(28:24):
when Essa and here's the thing about Her.
When it came to life or death and it came to protecting her
daughter. She didn't believe that when
people attack you, you should benonviolent back to them.
Yeah. Like Rosa Parks, she didn't
believe that when people attack your children physically and

(28:45):
shoot at them and throw Molotov cocktails at them that you
should be nonviolent back to him.
So what happened is, they started protesting, they started
boycotting businesses because Cambridge was still with, you
know, a large percentage of black people.
So, their boycotts were very effective started boycotting
businesses. They started staging protests.

(29:06):
You Doing community activism. And they were met with outright
violence, violence, erupt? And they fought back.
She was on the front lines of fighting back and that was the
first time I mean Malcolm X was up in the streets, talking about

(29:29):
it. Martin Luther King was down
there, practice and non-violenceagain at hose with the kids at
The Children's March Cambridge Maryland was the first time that
a community of people fought back during the Civil Rights
Movement, they fought back. It was men and women, who had
who were rugged, who knew how tolive on their own, who knew, how

(29:50):
to, you know, teal kill the oil who were strong and those men
would not have it. It would not have it, they
protected her. They lined up rank-and-file,
they followed her leadership. In fact, she was the only woman
That was in that senior level ofposition for an entire kind of

(30:11):
movement. Right.
Most people were like the secretary or the field secretary
this or that, or this, you had her, you had Daisy Bates, you
have Fannie, Lou Hamer, you had Ella Baker, so you had a lot of
wheat or not a lot. You had a handful of leaders
that we know about, but he took no orders from no one in the
establishment. She was the top of the pecking

(30:32):
order. Gloria Richardson and the
Cambridge movement in Maryland and Men, Women children.
I mean, there's a picture of herand Stokely Carmichael getting
released from jail and she had on her jeans on her white shirt.
That's what I'm saying, high-ranking and the fact that
she chose to fight back was a risk.

(30:53):
A huge risk for people like a Phillip Randolph for people like
Martin Luther, King for people like Ralph Abernathy.
The southern Christian leadership conference.
They were like, I told Lulu. He was a woman.
She was beautiful. She was Radical, she had come
from a family of free people. For two, three, four, five

(31:16):
generations, back to Africa. She had money.
They need to ask her, no money, and she and she was mad.
And she was a mother and they were bombing her daughter.
So Vanessa, Cambridge Maryland erupted into riots riots so much
to where Robert Kennedy had to send the National Guard and to

(31:39):
Cambridge. They came into Cambridge and
they thought they had swelled the violence.
It was, all right, a street fight and she was in the middle
of it. They thought they knew Robert.
Kennedy asked a woman whose daughter is getting bombed as
she ever smile, Vanessa, they tried to the National Guard

(32:02):
tried to leave As soon as they left the riots came back.
I mean shooting guns that you got guns, we got guns, you
won't, you won't most us, we gotMolotov cocktail I mean before
the Black Panther Party, there was a straight Street Fight For
Justice in Cambridge. That's right.

(32:25):
Thousand National Guardsmen had to come back.
The longest occupation of any City in American history for a
year. The National Guard today,
Because it was hot. They was no.
I folks was already pissed off about Harriet Tubman right

(32:47):
already Pista. I'm not kidding.
You. That was I believe you
Generations before. They was already pissed off that
he read some of them. Come up there stole all their
people. Embarrass them in front of the
nature, right, under the seat ofpower Washington, d.c., go,
scurried off, made a fool out ofall of them and in people write
movies about it now, they'll come said, they was already bad.

(33:07):
They was already mad. So, they gave her hell, like you
said, give them hell. Yesterday, they gave her hell.
She gave her a ride back to Roy Richardson gave it right back to
them and she became so popular. That actually Malcolm X in that
speech. If you listen to the grassroot
that speech and he goes, he's talking about dr.
King and all them and how they they are on the wrong track and

(33:30):
how they have integrated. All of these like preachers and
pastors or why people who are now like taking over their
movement and steering it in directions, that is not going to
truly liberate life. He goes, but the people know
what they need and the people know what they want and local
organizing by people, like Gloria Richardson will save the
black community, will Liberate the black community and then the

(33:53):
whole crowd started cheering forher, she was so popular and he
said, he's because, you know, she had to go to the March on
Washington and she's like, look,this is just a power move and we
go apparently, not some X was there.
Apparently, Malcolm X was in who's These husband Ossie Davis
is room. Yeah.

(35:03):
So the story they tried to writesome some proposals but
negotiations is treaties and stuff.
She was like not she said you'renot going to give human rights
to people who are already free. Would you think you're doing?
We don't need your your dignity.We have dignity.

(35:25):
We need contracts. We need jobs, we need build
health care and that's why Robert Kennedy could not still
working with her because all this, like, placating all these
treaties and legislation. No, no, no, no, no.
This is what we need and she would not back down.

(35:45):
John Lewis writes about it in his book, he was in the meeting
with her John Lewis and he was like, she would not back down
hours of negotiation, so they Eventually, make the Cambridge
treaty gave, almost everything that you wouldn't, because
whatever. She's like, we gon burn this
whole thing down and you saw what Harriet Tubman?

(36:07):
Stabilizers whole country. We gonna burn this whole thing
down so he was like we're going to go ahead and write this K
retreat. Is everybody's there?
Listen to her. She got that famous that they

(36:28):
try to guilt her up. Stop the March.
She came all up on the gun. She was like what's going
through? What's going through the man?
Was like, You started working with the

(37:41):
labor. They said that she was the most
rebellious Woman. They said that he was the
general of the Civil Rights Movement.
They called her, the general of the Civil Rights Movement.
Oh my God, y'all Gloria Richardson, if you don't
remember, no, other name of thisseries, please remember her.
The general of the Civil Rights Movement.
I want you to hear from her daughters, and we're going to
open up the line. There's a clip, I want you to

(38:01):
hear from her daughter's, okay? It's her daughter and her
granddaughter, We had a lot of very scary experiences, Donna
Richardson orange describes turbulent times growing up in
Cambridge Maryland in the early 1960s demonstration and the

(38:21):
violent thought the Maryland National Guard here in force to
maintain order. You could pick up our phone and
home and hear the police station.
Because they tap in the phone, it was part of living with her
mother Gloria Richardson who became one of the greatest civil
rights heroines in American history.

(38:42):
In this 1963 photo Richardson, is he pushing away a Maryland
National Guardsmen its bayonet after Governor?
Jay Miller, tatas sent in troopsto help keep the peace.
I don't think I've ever seen herintimidated about anything, but
he segregation campaign was organized by the so-called
Cambridge. Action committee Richardson

(39:04):
members of the Cambridge nonviolent action committee and
their supporters and or threats and arrests as they protested
racial discrimination activism that led Richardson to
Washington and Beyond the militant granddaughter.
T.i. young says, Richardson was passionate and Unapologetic.
The lady General he really understood that it was okay to

(39:28):
make people uncomfortable and it's You know, that means you're
doing something. It's okay to make people feel
uncomfortable. Vanessa, that means you're doing
something. As all of the news cameras came
out and she became the general and young people like Stokely

(39:49):
Carmichael who went on to be pivotal in the Black Panther
Party. And she created a new model for
no justice, no peace, a new model.
For an eye for an eye. She showed everything that
Malcolm X was talking about, in real time and she inspired the
next generation of people like Stokely, Carmichael, who would

(40:09):
then become the manifesto for the Black Panther Party?
Who would then inspire people like James Brown and pop culture
feet people to say I'm Black andI'm Proud and I won't stand
down. I don't know karate, but I know
crazy. That's okay.
And then who would then Inspire an entire movement of people?

(40:29):
Who say right people who would say I'm not going to ask
permission, I'm not going to askhim to do the things that I need
to do for my life, for my family, for my community.
And I'm going to make it look good while I do it.
I'm a button on my high-waisted jeans.
I'm gonna make it look good while I do it.

(40:51):
That's what I'm saying. That's Howard University, came
to Cambridge home place of Harriet Tubman.
I am so grateful to learn about her.
She live is she married open model.
I am too. I love that picture of her and I
never knew her name. Never knew her backstory.
Never knew it was anything more than just like a bystander in
the crowd who looked amazing. Although it's not going good.

(41:14):
Yeah. You're talking about it today.
And Vanessa, he married, one of the photographers who came down

(41:36):
here that day, who was enamored by her incredible.
Brilliant, physicality as geniusas a general.
She married this man. They moved to New York and she
lived to be 99 years old. She just, oh, I love this in
2021. She just passed away and oh my
God. She was active her entire life.
So that is the story of Gloria Richardson.

(41:58):
I want to know what we should beFearless about today.
What should we be Fearless abouttoday?
Fear, not Joel. Because if we say we love each
other and we say we love our families and we say that we love
America. What should we be Fearless
about? Open up the lines.
Anybody on the line? There are nine.

(42:19):
If you have something to, by theway, where are you from?
What do we do about this? Is Cheryl.
Walking is Smyrna, Georgia what we should be Fearless about?
Is using our voice when you asked earlier what was killing

(42:44):
our daughters? I think being compelled by
systems to remain. Silent cool on this walk and
talk. I feel alive.
I I have acted on things that have been in my heart but not

(43:04):
been in my hand until girltrek with the journey through
sickness kind of a joke for me and my family.
Now the battle cancer and God's healing and immediately after
being hailed, breaking my leg infour places, trying to be

(43:26):
Fearless at 63 But God knows. And I know where the woman on
this call, and for our daughters, don't be silent, use
your voice, your ideas, your mind, your strength, your power,

(43:47):
your intellect to make the change, you see needed in
community, whether that your little cul-de-sac, Your street,
your school, your sorority your house.
Make your voice heard. I love you.

(44:12):
I can't thank you enough for. Thank you, sister.
My life in so many ways that I can't even share in this moment.
But God bless you, all, and thank you for hearing me today.
Daughter absorbing me. Yes daughter.
Oh Dorothy. We love you, too.

(44:34):
And raise your voice, hit star 9.
Tell us what we need to be Fearless about.
What are the systems designed designed for our daughters?
Not to succeed? What are the systems that have
held us back in our lives? Raise Your Voice star 99, raise
your voice. I love that.
As a first one, that is the first part of what we're going

(44:56):
to do one. We're going to say no to things.
Don't serve us to, we are going to raise our voices.
What else do we need to do? Is there any, do we need to be
asking permission for something?Do we need the government to
help us with some? Do we need, like, what do we
need? I want to hear from you.
And who's next? My name is Tamara Cosby from
Queens. New York.

(45:17):
Hi camera. Hi.
Um so I know you mentioned aboutpeople being like 20, any 26
year olds you know, I'm 25 and Ijust wanted to speak on behalf
of like the the younger generation that I think we need
to not be afraid to ask for helpand places that we feel wouldn't

(45:42):
help us. Yes.
Yes, first of all, Tamara you about to be the next Martin
Luther King because you old enough.
All right, you're number two. Yes, just like torture
Richardson. She went down.
She was like, listen, Snick. We need some, we need another
chapters. You like listen, dr.
King. I know, you don't know me.

(46:03):
I live in a little town called Cambridge with this was
happening there and it ain't right and we ain't got no job,
right? So you speak up.
Don't don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to say, no, but
then ask for people's help. Actual people help that how we
are fearless. That's how we fear not ask for
camera needed. This one.

(47:31):
I am unlicensed to remain in silence, you don't have a right
to remain to remain silent. Actually in this here fight for
Liberation, too many people likeGloria Richardson have put
themselves on the line, y'all have put themselves on the line,

(47:53):
we're going to line up two or three more callers.
What I want you to do is think about if you're brave enough to
raise Your hand hidden star 9. Think about if you're brave
enough to say what we really need to be Fearless about, think
about we need some more voices on here, and we're going to do
it. Well, let's take two or three
minutes to just ruminate on whatwe said.

(48:14):
All right, Vanessa, you said youhave a hard time saying, no,
somebody said they had a hard time raising up their voice.
Somebody said we, I don't even really know how to ask for help.
I want to bring those. Yes, and that is fear.
That is And I want us to in the spirit of Joy or Gloria

(48:34):
Richardson and in the spirit of my favorite new British rap
artist Wilson. I want us to walk and I want us
to imagine shooting that fear down.
Okay, let's play, this is a 1 minute, while he meant it, here
we go. You said, my family not going to

(49:47):
suffer in my lifetime, my familynot going to suffer in my
lifetime, that's what she said, open up a lot and he's on the
line star 9. What do we need to be Fearless
about families? Not going to suffer in my
lifetime. My aunt is not going to work on
the on the floor of a factory, while some 70 years old trying

(50:10):
to get retirement, not in my lifetime Vanessa.
Amen. My name is Chris Norwood.
I'm calling from Detroit. Michigan.
And I heard the question, what do we what killing our daughters

(50:32):
or are girls and as an educator standing in the space watching
the middle school girls ages, 12to 14, coming to school.
Because they're caring for theiryounger siblings because their
mothers are able to be in the home bike.
They need to be because they're trying to work to just be able

(50:52):
to take care of their family. Watching them not come to school
because they are at home taking care of younger siblings and to
see them be so defeated when they come and they're not able
to keep up or catch up with the work that they're trying to
navigate, and then just try to navigate their own experiences
as being, a preteen, all of those things are Impacting our

(51:15):
girls and it breaks my heart because they they're just trying
to literally survive but they'reactually bearing the weight that
is the weight that their mothersare bearing.
So it's like just this the pressure difference coming down
but keeps coming back out on us like, yes, this is systemic
pressure to it's just a minute, right?

(51:37):
So it is yeah. So if you have overworked owners
who are serving as a laborers and the backbones of the The
society who are chronically underpaid and and an exam and,
and overworked almost systemically.
If you don't have two jobs, you got over time, and if you don't
have over time, you need over time because you ain't getting

(51:57):
paid enough, right? So all of these things are
happen, is why we pay people. Well, at girl trick, say what
you will, whatever, whatever. It's just hold on.
Here's the thing, here's the thing.
The girls are holding the weightof their mothers and girls.
Now are coming to school exhausted from caretaking

(52:18):
responsibilities. So I think that is a powerful
one. And you have something else to
say, let's wrap it up in the, we're going to get one or two
more. So what can I be Fearless in the
in, what do I need to do to try to help these girls?
Who are coming to my school, bearing, all of this weight, how
do we put in systems in place? So that we can do a wraparound
support to provide what the parents need and to provide what

(52:40):
these girls need when they come from.
His problem is done, I'll do is that much.
So what I'm doing is, I'm makingsure that when we come to
school, we're talking about. How do you practice up here?
How you manage your time? What can I do for you?
Oh, you're tired, you need me togo talk to the teacher because
you can turn it at assignment. I'm giving as much grace as our

(53:01):
girls need to be able to move forward in life, without
feeling, like they have to fightfor everything that they need
and that's what I'm doing. That's, that's the same that I,
yes, but let me know everybody, but let me also say this Is
Chris. Let me also say this, Chris is
one of our oldest organizers. I'm also say this Chris We
cannot just manage the Injustice.

(53:24):
We have to get at the root of the Injustice and so if you have
to look at what the root causes are, is it is the root cause of
that that we cannot afford childcare.
Anything is the root cause of it.
You need to go and press your local government in order to
provide stipends for child care.We have a we have friends that

(53:45):
organization called all our kin,who just press the Divide.
To put Federal funding in her child and elder care.
If any if people get any federaldollars well you need to
investigate that from a policy level and see, okay?
I don't want my 14 year old students babysitting until
midnight. So what does childcare look like

(54:06):
for her mother? That's affordable and start to
organize the teachers around it.Go to the City Council meetings,
change the root causes because you're exhausted so you can't
push in more management of exhausted girls when You're
exhausted, we have to get to it at the root at the policy at the
system's level 1000, right? Thank you.

(54:27):
Now know how to forward. All right, move forward.

(54:50):
He was just like I was just so exhausted and that even just
shows you that like the level ofexhaustion that we are
experiencing and then it's like oh now I got to show up to the
bank between 3 and 5 and then I got to get across town to do it.
And then I got him at like the things that seem like small
micro decisions for other peoplewho have abundance and capacity

(55:11):
and all the things are major decisions for black women when
you're navigating every single day of one, all Bank of energy.
This is what I'm going to tell you enough, exhaustion.
Have their real. Since we've been in this
country, it has been real since we've been in this country and
it is not a coincidence. That Gloria Richardson whose

(55:31):
parents were well-to-do, grandparents or politician,
great-grandparents was free in slavery.
Before the Civil War is the middle class person who has the
capacity and then lift to fight.It is not a coincidence member
Mako, and what's called for me McGann, most radical one, who
came from the Family. Anybody who has found a way to

(56:26):
take a walk in middle of the day, have some eyesight on the
bus. But you know, three cousins, who
don't, you know, three cousins, who can't get off the couch, you
know, three cousins have been looking for a job for 45 years.
You know, three cousins who werein a relationship where they are
stuck because they too scared tobe alone because they have no
fight in them to even get on themarket.

(56:46):
That's not right now, get on theMark, I'm just saying, give me a
big day, but if you are at leastmoving forward, we like that 20.
What'd she say she was 26 26? Yeah.
Whatever you say, you don't evenhave a license to be silent, you
are on life and to be silent. So I am telling every single

(57:07):
person out there who has some bandwidth that we have to get in
the game around activism and policy change to extend life
expectancy for our daughters. This is the first generation
that is projected to live shorter lives than their
parents. We talking global Warming.

(57:30):
Y'all, we got anybody else on the call on the call we'll take
one more and then I'll wrap it up while they're coming under
col Morgan. I just, he had to she said,
they're coming on the hell what you said is so important because
it's even what the welcome walkswhen were telling women that,
and they're coming back. Y'all, third Saturday of July.
It's like, some of you, we really got the capacity to show
up and be like condoms and we gotta do it when we have it.

(57:52):
Because there are so many women out there who may be on that
day, don't have it and so that is like, Collective care.
For our communities exactly in the way that you're talking
about. Yes.
All right, sister who are you and what do you got to say?
Hello. Yes.
Hi. Hi.

(58:13):
I don't want to give my name because I maybe have some was
listening, but I thought about the question that you all asked
regarding what we can do to helpour younger sisters with the
struggles that they are meet that they're having In life, I
want to say first of all, Vanessa you and Morgan or my

(58:34):
heroes, you are women, King you abuse Lake.
Okay? I just I'm so in all of this
movement, if it had, its broughtso much enrichment to my life.
Both physically intellectually, I'm 71 years old.

(58:54):
And this is the first time I've seen black women, who truly do.
Have a heart for for us and I just thank you.
I thank you too so much and I appreciate you.
I've been around real trick now since the since the stress
protest back, I think with 2019 and I was able to go to Colorado

(59:16):
and I've just been a girl track or ever since, but anyway, I'm
I'm dealing with. I have a beautiful night, 18
year old granddaughter and who just graduated To come high
school, she's beautiful. She was, in fact, she was
homecoming, queen, and her school.

(59:37):
She lives in a different state. So I went down for her
graduation. She's a, she's a track star,
she's smart, she's made great grades.
She's on her way to college. Okay, and she's absolutely
beautiful, but I thought that she has allowed herself to

(59:57):
become involved with this young man.
Who had her standing on the sidelines as matter.
Of fact, as we were taking pictures after graduation, he
had all of his friends and family and his photos, and then
after we, after he finished taking all his, all of his, you
know, friends and family photos in.
He invited her to come into a photo with him and she unzipped

(01:00:23):
her graduation gown so she can show that she was wearing a mini
dress. Underneath that and that, you
know, he's his face lit up, you know, seeing her legs and you
know cuz she has beautiful legs and and it just really just hurt
my heart to see her lower. I mean, sexualize herself almost

(01:00:47):
44, his, you know, for his for his attention and it just, you
know, it just is just really hurt because like I say she has
so much talent. She She's got her first year of
college already paid for with some scholarships.
She's, she's done some of everything and she's excelled so
much, but she now sees herself in as somebody who has to appear

(01:01:14):
sexualizing herself in order to be able to have this young man's
attention and it just it just really broke my heart to be
honest with you and I just wouldlike to know what, what you all
might recommend. is a two in this situation that I'm her
grandmother, her mother, and shehas mother, and, and stepmom,

(01:01:39):
you know, she's my son daughter and so I and I haven't had
really much success talking withthem about it because they, you
know, they only see all of her accomplishments and feel like
well she's fine, everything's fine, you know, she's you know,
don't don't you know, Say anything - but you know I just I

(01:02:01):
just can't not feel that. She is heading down the wrong
path when you know when her image is something that you want
to present in a sexualized way in order to please this guy.
I just, you know, I just Wow. I am so first of all, I am so

(01:02:21):
honored that you called and I'm so honored that you support us
and I am so humbled that we havea forum that a woman in her 20s
can call and sit some poetry anda woman in her 70s can call with
both Sage advice. Endorsement and a question is
the kind of community of black women.

(01:02:41):
I have always dreamed of and I am just honored to be a part of
it with all of you and your question is Brave.
And it is important, and we talked about fear, not the fear
of being alone that Vanessa started this with is so real
that no matter what your accomplishments are, no matter

(01:03:02):
how much money you make, no matter how pretty your faces,
are you nice. Your legs are that somehow some
way this Society is set up whether it is through housing
laws, whether it is through the breaking up of families.
During the slave trade, somehow,someway, black women be ended up
alone and it is a fear that I have.

(01:03:26):
It is a fear that Vanessa has, Iwill speak for you.
My friend, it is a fear that so many people we know have of
being alone and I think, but we have to fight that fear.
It was not lost on me that Gloria Richardson divorced her
first husband and fought by her.All for her daughters.

(01:03:49):
And then in that fight on that path.
Found the love of her life photographer.
And he, he saw her in her divineness, he saw her in her
alignment, with her greater Purpose, with her God, with her
God Mission. He saw her in that light.

(01:04:09):
And so, my biggest advice to anybody out there who feels like
baby girl feel where you have toyou have to To perform for the
love of anybody. Whether it is a man or anybody
is to find alignment with your greatest purpose and go fast in

(01:04:30):
that direction and the communitywill unfold at your feet.
That love will unfurl on your onyour own back.
That's your own Wings will take root.
It will take flight that you have to walk in your purpose.
I have had the great pleasure ofbeing madly in love in my life

(01:04:56):
with, like, absolutely the rightpeople.
And the times that I found thosetime that those people were,
when I was in perfect alignment with God's will, for my life,
where I knew, I was firing on all fillable, that was talking
to talk moving to move goods andmy face was little, but I
everything. Skip in the person was attracted

(01:05:17):
to that was the person I was married to for 15 for 15 years
or the person I moved and I was in Africa with living my best
life, like really? That is it.
And then I will tell you this, in the meantime sister, While we
are finding our way, we cannot be alone.
And sometimes we, as we heard earlier, we are afraid of asking

(01:05:39):
for help. And so the best advice I can
give you is, call your granddaughter like her life,
depends on it. Call her every single week just
to talk. Not, I mean, in a non-judgmental
listening way because some of, this is a mental health issue,
right? For all of us, some of us, we
have functional depression, And some of it we have undiagnosed

(01:06:01):
grief, some of it, we have impostor syndrome and okay,
nobody afford? No therapy.
So sometimes what we need is somebody to listen, we are
trained in mental health. First date sometimes, what we
need is someone to listen to us without judgment and Jeff,
listen to us talk without prescribing without a solution.

(01:06:22):
Just listen to us talk. That's the best advice I could
give for us to really be Fearless when it comes to love.
Vanessa do. Have any thoughts?
Well, your advice was very good so you could clearly parents and
teenagers. I like that advice because I was
like, what would I say? But when you first, when she
first described her granddaughter, I was thinking
that even at that age, especially it's even not just a

(01:06:47):
fear of being alone as a fear ofnot being desirable.
Because there are so many messages telling young black
girls that who they are is not desirable and so they're looking
for every opportunity and every person to validate and every way
that they could show up and shift shape so that they could
be this version of desirable that they think as acceptable

(01:07:09):
and I think constantly upliftingalternative examples of black
women who, who were desirable inother ways, he found power and
other ways is one of those ways.And I think genuinely not a
plug. The black history boot camp, but
like walk with her and listen toThe Grace Jones episode walk
with her and listen to us, the queen Danny episode or some of

(01:07:30):
the episodes from like, the for mother.
Condition or like throughout this entire catalog I think
we've done a good job of giving some alternative models to women
and girls in general so that we can Rosetta Tharpe so that we
can see that. There's so many different
variations of what desirability can be in.
So many different ways in which we can get filled up in so many

(01:07:53):
different ways in which we can love on ourselves and we just
have to give our baby girls and menu of options and also a
little grace to know at that age, hormones is popping and all
These things are going on. And so, if we have that catalog
though, and our mental mind, I trust that we give them a North
star, that they continuously will come back to that Northstar
over and over again in the time that really matter.

(01:08:17):
Thank you. Thank you, all.
I will. I'm keeping in touch with her
very often. Please call her because I'm
telling you, I was just telling this to Vanessa this weekend, I
was like, people don't call people that like I was telling
her about me. I was like, my family doesn't

(01:08:38):
call me because they think I'm okay.
And like, my phone will not ringfor a whole day.
Sometimes, and part of that is in Vanessa challenge me to like,
really make sure that I'm not that I'm orienting around my own
happiness, and putting the effort in to build my own
community in my own. Outside of the loving gaze of a
man. And she's right, but I'm just

(01:08:59):
saying, like, sometime and, and to Vanessa, to your credit, I
love you so much. My sister, she called me on
Sunday morning and just that, are you, okay?
And sometimes I think grandmother that's all that she
needs. Sometimes just call her and say
hi. It's your grandmother.
Are you okay. Do it every week.
That's all therapy is. And I ain't going to be judged.

(01:09:25):
Yeah, not if we show that peopletalk, countability.
Yes. And it is just so I just
recommend that for people out there and go hard for her.
It's scary calling. Another generation.
I know it is a scary for me to talk to my mom.
It's scary to talk to another generation but these Fearless be
Fearless. Like, the women we have talked

(01:09:46):
about and go hard in the paint /.
Go hard in the. If you stop answering the phone,
keep calling go hard in the paint and just say, are you
okay, you know. So that's all we have today.
Y'all is there Tyree? And I don't know if it's
probably. I know the lines are lit up.
I know y'all got something to say.
I encourage you to go onto Instagram and under the Host,

(01:10:08):
put your answers there in the comments, I promise you, we read
them, we read them or you can email us at info at.
Girltrek dot-org. If you have an idea, the one
thing I have good news, Morgan just remind them of Saturday.
We're going to open the lines. Yes I will.
I will is today what? Wednesday?
Today's Wednesday, right? Yeah, so we yeah.
So we are finishing up like history bootcamp.

(01:10:30):
We have day 20 and a 21, so they20 will be right back here
tomorrow. But day 21, we are not going to
do on Friday. We are going to reserve it.
We're going to reserve it for Saturday and so we're going to
take a bi-week, rest. Take a nap for those 30 minutes
on Friday. And on Saturday we're going to
come back because the nest of the brilliant idea that the

(01:10:50):
first Saturday of each month. We're going to come on and just
have Sisterhood Saturdays with You all Boot Camp or not.
We're going to Kim, open up the lines.
Talk to y'all walk, talk and have fun together.
And so we're going to start thatby celebrating the end of this
boot camp day 21 on Saturday y'all on Saturday.
So we'll remind you again tomorrow that will be off on

(01:11:11):
Friday. And then on Saturday, we will
come back to in this beautiful, beautiful time together.
Gloria. Richardson teacher to your mom,
me to reintroduce myself. My name is Gloria.
But I thought about Vanessa, there's a poet that you love and
it's not. Maybe it's Octavia.

(01:11:34):
No, no, it's not Octavia Butler.The poets that you love.
Lucille Clifton, Nikki it lookedpretty serious.
Lucille, Clifton this Kanye Westsong?
I'm pretty sure so yes, the Daybreak.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Knowing that we were never meant

(01:12:20):
to survive and I think that is alittle nihilistic but I always
resonated with it somehow. I don't think I'm a nihilist but
I kind of resonated with it. Go hard go for we love these
supposed to be here. We want it's a miracle.
It is a miracle that you walk in.
It's a miracle that you that youlistening.
It's a Article that you have a smile on your face right now,

(01:12:43):
it's a miracle that you got air in your lungs.
Don't, you know, they tried to kill us and failed.
So, when I think about that, I just want to go hard like, Laura
Richardson. And I, and I just think about
people like Kanye who just be putting it all out there.
Say what you will, I know he is not treated black women.
Well, I know he hasn't, but I really wanted to listen to these

(01:13:05):
Lucille Clifton words, and I wanted to hear The Angst of our
community, just like how Rosa Parks yesterday.
So we can't throw away. This young man came in and beat
me in my house because it is a systems failure.
That why? Kanye is acting the way he is.
It is a systems failure. Ohyou're of why Hollywood is
exploiting his mental illness. It is a system.
Failure of why Ganda in Chicago on the south side of Chicago

(01:13:27):
raised her son alone? It is a system failure.
So I just want you to fear, not be systems, we can change them,
get your weight up, y'all. Black history, bootcamp 21, plus
our principles. Let's go out.
We'll follow God. Here we go.