By Chaquita Williams
“What can I do to help?” she asked during the Depression of the Thirties, the civil rights movement of the Sixties and the desegregation of the Seventies.
Thelma Vivian Grant Richardson, 82, has spent a lifetime trying to answer her own question.
For Richardson, the answer came through years of preparation then progress and philanthropy.
Even as a teenager, Richardson believed she must go a step further than her generation. “Society told me that my generation was doomed, so I wanted to prove them wrong.”
Richardson was raised in Moncks Corner, S.C., when the South was segregated. From the 1870s to the 1960s, local and state Jim Crow laws mandated a “separate but equal” standing for African-Americans. In South Carolina, schools, restaurants, restrooms, transportation systems, parks, beaches, even the State Fair were segregated, which often meant services were available to whites but not to blacks.
Used books in rundown schools, no service at the lunch counter, unsanitary bathrooms, and a back seat on the bus meant neither treatment nor opportunities were equal for black Americans.
Richardson says of the Jim Crow era, “Blacks were treated as less than nothing. America was not a place for hope. It was a place for helplessness.
“At that time, I thought that the best way to better society and the South was to teach. Teaching was what allowed me to ask, ‘Why is this thing the way it is?’ and ‘How can I make it better?’” says Richardson.
She remembers teaching as a profession that African-Americans commonly chose. “I didn’t feel as if it was the only thing I could do. I felt like it was something I had to do, something I was chosen to do.”
She attended Berkeley Training High School and recognized her passion for education. “I had a principal who really backed me to the hilt. He really influenced me to go to college. I was just really interested in education,” Richardson said.
In 1944, Richardson attended the Colored, Normal, Industrial, Agricultural, and Mechanical College of South Carolina (now South Carolina State University). She graduated in 1948, earning an associate degree for teaching in secondary education with a major in English and a minor in social studies. Richardson returned home to Moncks Corner, S.C., where she taught English at Berkeley Training Elementary School and Berkeley Training High School from 1952 to 1962 and at the R.A. Ready School from 1962 to 1967.
She began teaching at Macedonia Elementary and Middle Schools in 1967. During the summers of 1968 and 1969, she attended the College of Charleston, which first enrolled black students in 1967. There, Richardson earned her teaching certification in elementary education. She retired from teaching in the public school system in 1991.
Richardson’s sister, Maggie Grant Lawyer, 65, recalls Richardson’s experience as a teacher and mentor. “Thelma was dedicated to becoming the best teacher in Berkeley County. She felt that she had to learn all she could to address all the needs of the students. Thelma always stressed to me that there was more to do in our world. Our world was the segregated South.”
Richardson’s brother, Willie Grant, Jr., 59, agreed with Lawyer. “My sister was born to be a teacher. She would always come home on her college vacations and tell Maggie and me what she learned. The old girl would always show us ways to write and read properly,” he said.
Richardson continued to teach her sister and brother lessons.
“She also had a good way of knowing how to do more than teach, though. I think that’s why she went into the shoe repair business with my brother-in-law,” Grant added.
The World as a Classroom
“My husband and I thought he could use the skills he learned at college to start the business,” said Richardson.
Richardson’s husband, Jesse Richardson graduated from Claflin College (now Claflin University) in 1950. After college, he served in the Navy from 1951 to 1955. In 1956, Richardson entered a G.I. program that taught carpentry, painting, and shoe repair. He began his own shoe repair business in 1957.
“After Jesse finished the G.I. program, we decided to open up a shop in St. Stephens, S.C. We called it Richardson Shoe Repair Shop,” said Richardson.
“I generally stayed in the shop, but Jesse would go out from time-to-time and talk to passersby so they would come in the store,” she noted. “The community really received Jesse well because he was a people’s person. Both races, black and white, respected him. We knew there was racial stuff going on, and we thought that the business was a sign that progress was on the horizon.”
Richardson’s belief in progress turned into a moment of lost dreams and fragmented promises: “My idea of hope was shaken one night.
“One night, I guess it was around twelve or one o’clock in the morning, Jesse and I received a phone call. Someone had burned down the shop. We drove over to St. Stephens and saw the kerosene container and the black rag outside the door of the shop. I don’t know what happened.
“I still ask myself, ‘Who?’ and ‘Why?’”
While there was no investigation into the arson, the Richardsons decided to reopen.
“That shop was the only thing we had. But Jesse knew that all wasn’t lost.
“In about 30 days, he built our shop back. He renewed my spirits,” said Richardson. “We kept our shop until the early 1970s. I was an equal partner with Jesse in the shop and an equal partner with him in marriage until his death.”
“Thelma worked really hard with Jesse to keep the shop,” says Grant. “People really admired her for being a leader for women in the community.”
Lawyer attests to Richardson’s use of her skills. “Thelma had a business head, but she always kept education in mind. She even put some of what she learned in college into church programs.”
Business Tools Meets College Supplies
Richardson attends Wesley United Methodist Church in Moncks Corner, SC. She has served on the Wesley mass choir, Sunday school commission, and senior usher board. She is currently the church historian and serves on the stewardess board.
She often participates in civic programs, such as the annual Black History Day Program, Easter Day Program, Family and Friends Day, and the Emancipation Day Program, held every January 1st.
Emancipation Day is usually celebrated on April 16. On that day in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Compensated Emancipation Act, which freed more than 3,000 slaves in the District of Columbia. However, slavery did not officially end in the rest of the United States until after the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 until 1865.
“The church sees Emancipation Day as both a freeing of the slaves and a freeing of society’s shackles. Society still has a way of holding people back, you know. It ranges from education to business to politics,” Richardson says. “On Emancipation Day, I usually recite poetry, and we have a singing program with other churches. This year, we decided to do something different.
“We decided to have an Emancipation Day Parade.”
The parade was held on January 1, 2009. Richardson served as grand marshal. She is the first person to serve in the position.
The Rev. Lee C. Bines, pastor of Wesley United Methodist Church, chose Richardson as the grand marshal.
“Ms. Richardson was chosen because no one could have filled her shoes at that moment. As an active member of Wesley, she has participated in church activities and the community as well,” said Bines. “She is there for any person who needs her input; she tries to make their life easier.
“Ms. Richardson not only teaches us about life but leads us spiritually and mentally to a higher level,” he said.
“So, the choice for grand marshal was clear,” he continued.
At the Emancipation Day Parade, the church collected money for Richardson in honor of her 52 years of service to the church. She refused to take the money.
“I didn’t want to take the money for my use,” said Richardson. “I knew it could be put to better use.
“For years, I wanted to start a scholarship fund for students in the community. I got my chance that day,” she added.
That day, the Wesley congregation started the Thelma Richardson Scholarship Fund. The fund will annually award ten high school seniors college scholarships.
“We still haven’t decided how much money each student will receive. The program is just beginning, but we have great plans for these students,” she said. “I don’t want them to have to worry about money for college like I did.
“My hope is to get the scholarship in full effect by August of this year,” she continued. “I will do whatever I can to help my community. I believe that help starts with building foot soldiers to fight the battles of the future.”
“Thelma has shown great versatility throughout her life,” said Lawyer.
“She is an example for all ages.”
Williams is a student at Columbia College, majoring in English with an emphasis in business and professional writing.
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