Germantown WORKS Explores Richardson Legacy
By PATRICK COBBS
Staff Writer
On November 17, 1967, an 18-year old Germantown activist named David Richardson organized a city-wide walkout of African American high school students to march on the Philadelphia School Board. The students wanted more black teachers and administrators in schools, the right to wear African clothing, and the official recognition of black student unions.
“Schools from the north came down on Broad Street, and they came up from the south,” recalled Mary Ann Tyler at the Germantown WORKS forum February 18. “I’ll never forget that day.”
Area residents and elected officials joined several Germantown High School (GHS) students as part of an ongoing oral history program that day, “Remembering David Richardson and the Germantown Protest of 1967,” sponsored by numerous area groups. This particular forum hatched from student investigators’ desire to learn more about Richardson and the role of GHS in recent history.
“I’d like to consider Dave Richardson the greatest leader Germantown has ever had,” said event moderator David Young, the executive director of Cliveden of the National Trust.
Six years after the ’67 student march, Richardson ran for the state House of Representatives and beat the white incumbent, Francis Rush, for the 201st legislative district seat in a landslide victory. He went on to win 12 consecutive terms in the House and to become the Democratic Chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, the chair of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus, and the National Black Caucus of State Legislatures. He sponsored more than four hundred bills in his 22 years in Harrisburg and became known as a champion of social justice, welfare reform and prison reform. When he died of a heart attack at 46, he was the third ranking Democrat and the senior African American in the state House.
But on February 14 speakers focused on Richardson’s personal impact more than anything else.
“I remember him saying ‘to whom power is given much is required,’” said State Senator Leanna Washington (D., 4th). “And his mission was to save black people.”
Along with Washington, State Representative John Myers (Richardson’s successor in the 201st District) and 8th District City Councilwoman Donna Miller all joined the panel as personal friends of Richardson. They spoke of his ability to unite people and inspire them.
Washington credited Richardson with motivating her to get an education and become involved with politics, and Miller and Myers said his leadership skills came out early when he started to broker truces between “the Seven Gs,” the gangs of Germantown.
“Dave’s message wasn’t ‘I don’t like gangs,’ ” Myers said. Rather, it was to understand the gangs and why they existed, and try to use those understandings to help organize the community, Myers said.
The meeting participants encouraged the students to become involved in the community using Richardson as a model.
The invitation didn’t go unnoticed. Several of the students used the forum to complain about unfairness and harshness in the school’s enforcement of dress code and cell phone policy. And they talked of a school-wide shortage of books for homework assignments.
“I don’t think the [non teaching assistants] or the school police should treat every child like they are delinquent,” said senior Tia-Yana Woods. She and several of the students on the panel were visibly upset by security policies at GHS, and what they characterized as regular harassing of students by security personnel.
But school-related staff encouraged the students to take a hard look at the context of the problems before they organized against it.
“We have a culture in the school that is a problem,” admitted David Hoxter, who runs an after school program at the school. “But as leaders I would ask you, what is your responsibility to enact your vision?” he continued. “Think about what you’re moving on: Are you building up, or are you tearing down?”
Area organizations supporting the Germantown WORKS and Germantown Speaks projects include: The Neighborhood Interfaith Movement, Cliveden of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Germantown Historical Society, Center in the Park, First Presbyterian Church of Germantown, First United Methodist Church of Germantown, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church of Germantown, Lutheran Theological Seminary of Philadelphia, Partners for Sacred Places and Germantown High School.
