Black History Makers: Gloria Richardson Dandridge

Gloria Richardson (Screenshot from Library of Congress interview, 2011)

Gloria Richardson Dandridge (named Gloria St. Clair Hayes at birth) was born on May 6, 1922 in Baltimore, Maryland to John and Mabel Hayes. 

The family would later move to Cambridge, Maryland during the Great Depression where Gloria’s grandfather, Herbert M. St. Clair, owned a funeral parlor, grocery store, butcher shop, and many other properties. He also held great political power in the community.

Gloria enrolled into Howard University at age 16 and graduated with a degree in sociology in 1942. Afterward, she worked as a civil servant for the government in World War II-era Washington, D.C. but returned to Cambridge once the war was over. Gloria married a local schoolteacher named Harry Richardson. They had two daughters and she focused on civic work.

The civil rights movement came to Cambridge in 1961 in the form of Freedom Riders, and Dandridge was drawn closer to activism by her daughter Donna after witnessing her activism through nonviolent demonstrations.

Dandridge along with other parents founded the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee (CNAC). CNAC activists from outside the region and Black Cambridge residents protested by sitting in at segregated movie theaters, bowling alleys, and restaurants. They fought for the economic rights of Cambridge citizens, and despite the name of the organization Dandridge and her followers did not commit to non-violence as a philosophy or a tactic. 

In fact, CNAC protests were far more violent and confrontational than their name would suggest, and as a result, Maryland Governor J. Millard Tawes sent in the National Guard to address the violence, which would remain stationed in Cambridge for nearly a year. Continually violent protests eventually prompted the Federal government to intervene in an effort to bring an end to the violence.

The Treaty of Cambridge was later produced and Gloria was one of the signatories. CNAC activists secured victories for public housing, the protection of voting rights, and the establishment of a body to investigate Civil Rights violations. The organization continued to demonstrate and in 1963 a mass civil Rights march was held. It was during this time that the famous photograph of a fierce Dandridge pushing the bayonet of a National Guardsman was taken.

By the summer of 1964, Gloria resigned from the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee exhausted from leading two years of continuous protests. Having divorced two years prior, she remarried and moved to New York with her photographer husband Frank Dandridge . She continued her civic work in New York, this time focused on seniors.

Dendridge died last year of natural causes on July 15, 2021, in Manhattan, New York. She was 99 years old.

A native of Phoenix, Arizona Aundrea Sayrie is a firm believer in the power of words, faith and a strong spirit. Her greatest desire is to encourage those around her to discover and honor their truth, and to passionately live on purpose.