The Cambridge Movement, 1963
Subject
Gloria Richardson Pushes a National Guardsman’s Bayonet Aside, Unknown photographer, Cambridge, Maryland, July 21, 1963. Courtesy Baltimore Sun
Description
After success in Baltimore, the student-led Civic Interest Group (CIG) and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) turned their eyes toward Cambridge, MD. When the teens were met with violence from the local law enforcement, adults took up the cause, and discrimination issues far beyond public accommodation came to light on a national stage. Cambridge was completely segregated, denying employment, education, and medical care to Black residents. National figures and the press moved in, likening segregation in Cambridge to that of the Deep South. Race Street, which divided the Black 2nd Ward from white wards, became a line in the sand, with both sides armed to maintain it. Soon the small town of Cambridge, Maryland, became a war zone.
Source
“Herb [St. Clair] asked ‘All that nonviolence stuff is fine, but I want to know if they come to our door, what would you do.’” — Reggie Robinson, Duke University Libraries, Server TTS, E-folder RL11333-LFF-0003
“With us I think it [nonviolence] was tactical because—you couldn’t just go out fighting. But as soon as the nonviolent demonstrations were over, then you had to do a different strategy because after about a year they would come out and try to fire-bomb peoples’ houses.” — Gloria Richardson
“You know, as long as somebody is ‘on your neck’ and you say, ‘Please get off. Do get off. Why don’t you be nice, and get off.’ Then one day somebody says, ‘Dammit, get the hell off my back, off my neck.’ Because you’re tired.” — Marion Bascom
“With us I think it [nonviolence] was tactical because—you couldn’t just go out fighting. But as soon as the nonviolent demonstrations were over, then you had to do a different strategy because after about a year they would come out and try to fire-bomb peoples’ houses.” — Gloria Richardson
“You know, as long as somebody is ‘on your neck’ and you say, ‘Please get off. Do get off. Why don’t you be nice, and get off.’ Then one day somebody says, ‘Dammit, get the hell off my back, off my neck.’ Because you’re tired.” — Marion Bascom
Geolocation
Citation
“The Cambridge Movement, 1963,” Passion and Purpose, accessed April 19, 2024, https://passionandpurpose.omeka.net/items/show/13.