Many prominent and well-known figures greatly impacted the civil rights
movement, but one of the most influential and unsung leaders of that
period was Gloria Richardson. As the leader of the Cambridge Nonviolent
Action Committee (CNAC), a multifaceted liberation campaign formed to
target segregation and racial inequality in Cambridge, Maryland,
Richardson advocated for economic justice and tactics beyond nonviolent
demonstrations. Her philosophies and strategies -- including her belief
that black people had a right to self--defense -- were adopted, often
without credit, by a number of civil rights and black power leaders and
activists.
The Struggle Is Eternal: Gloria Richardson and Black Liberation
explores the largely forgotten but deeply significant life of this
central figure and her determination to improve the lives of black
people. Using a wide range of source materials, including interviews
with Richardson and her personal papers, as well as interviews with
dozens of her friends, relatives, and civil rights colleagues, Joseph R.
Fitzgerald presents an all-encompassing narrative. From Richardson's
childhood, when her parents taught her the importance of racial pride,
through the next eight decades, Fitzgerald relates a detailed and
compelling story of her life. He reveals how Richardson's human rights
activism extended far beyond Cambridge and how her leadership style and
vision for liberation were embraced by the younger activists of the
black power movement, who would carry the struggle on throughout the
late 1960s and into the 1970s.
