A Memorial Legacy In Honor of Dr. Raymond Earl Richardson, Sr.

Raymond Earl Richardson, Sr., was born on January 10, 1939 in Senatobia, Mississippi, to tenant farmers Reverend Rich Richardson and Lillian Richardson, Raymond later moved with his family to Shelby County, where his brilliant mind immediately became visible as an intellectual prodigy by outperforming so far ahead of his classmates that he “skipped” two (2) grades in elementary school prior to attending Geeter High School. Raymond was also a faithful Christian since his baptism in Hickory Hill Baptist Church. Raymond was the second youngest of the seven children of Rich and Lillian Richardson.

Raymond’s father, Rich Richardson did not have the opportunity to graduate from high school, yet he was one of the few Black men who could read in his neighborhood and his analytical skills were even higher than both Raymond, who became the first Back person to receive a PhD in “pure” mathematics at Vanderbilt University and his brother FC Richardson who earned a PhD in Botany Biology at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Indeed, when Raymond would return home from college from Rust College in Holly Springs, MS, Raymond would show his father, Rich, a set of mathematics problems, and after a day, Rich Richardson, who never had the opportunity to complete high school, would have solved every problem that Raymond had presented to him. Raymond, growing up under Rich Richardson’s guidance and engaging with his father who pushed him to excel with the belief that he was a descendant of one of the smartest men on planet earth. Indeed, Rich instilled in Raymond and his brothers and sisters a strong sense of social awareness, a thirst for knowledge, and a commitment to fighting for justice and dignity, particularly for Black Americans.

Rich and Lillian Richardson instilled in their kids that the Richardson family does not just exist, but is important and impactful for a vibrant community that they live in, despite the segregation and racism they faced. The Richardson family was and is very close, proud, dignified, gracious and giving.

With a loving and protective mother, Lillian, and a brilliant and civil rights activist father, Rich, Raymond forged ahead to attend HBCU Rust College in Holly Springs, MS. Initially, Raymond planned to major in Music because he had received a Music Scholarship due to his beautiful tenor voice and being a lead singer in the Rust College Choir. One day, one of his classmates during his freshman year told Raymond that he was taking easy courses as a Music major and that upset Raymond. As a result, Raymond asked his classmate what was his major and what courses was he taking? His classmate was a mathematics major and Raymond then copied his classmate’s course list and signed up for all of the mathematics classes and told his classmate that he (Raymond) was smarter than him and that he (Raymond) would earn better grades. Indeed, Raymond earned straight A’s across the board and changed his major to mathematics.

Raymond’s performance at Rust College is legendary. Indeed, once in a World History Class, the professor would call on various students and if a student got a question correct, the professor would keep calling on that same student until he/she missed a question. One day, Raymond was called on, and for seventeen (17) straight minutes, Raymond correctly answered world history questions.

To put a “stamp” on Raymond’s brilliance, during his senior year at Rust College, Raymond taught two (2) mathematics undergraduate courses. One of the Rust College mathematics professors became ill at the start of Raymond’s senior year. Due to Raymond being so far ahead of all the mathematics majors, the mathematics department head went to the Rust College President and asked for approval for Raymond during his senior year to teach two (2) mathematics course without a TA (Teacher’s Assistant). Indeed, the Rust College President approved. Instead of paying Raymond a salary, Rust College withheld the form of renumeration for the 2 classes he taught and used it for scholarship money for Raymond to pursue his Master’s in Mathematics at HBCU Atlanta University (now, Clark Atlanta University) to study under the preeminent mathematician in the nation, Dr. Abdulalim Shabzz, Head of the Mathematics Department at Atlanta University who from 1957 – 1963 awarded 109 Masters degrees in Mathematics and of those 109 – 40% went on to receive PhD’s in Mathematics or Mathematics Education.

A courageous human and civil rights freedom fighter name Raymond Earl Richardson emerged at Atlanta University. Studying under Dr. Abdulalim Shabzz, not only was Raymond studying under the preeminent Mathematician in the nation, Dr. Abdulalim Shabzz exposed his Mathematics students to the racial segregation structure in the nation and also introduced them to Malcolm X and that experience meeting Malcolm X in person had a indelible imprint on Raymond. Malcolm X addressing the Mathematics graduate students at Atlanta University urged them to not just become the best Mathematicians in the nation, but to also join the fight to uplift, liberate and betterment the Black community. Indeed, Raymond would often tell family, friends and acquaintances that “Malcolm X was our manhood, our living, black manhood.” Indeed, Malcolm X’s impact on Raymond was due to when Malcolm X spoke, he spoke with clarity, boldness, passion, and controlled anger about issues impacting the Black community. Raymond was inspired by Malcolm X’s ability to quote books, articles, and magazines when debating with those who opposed him. Raymond was amazed by Malcolm X’s ability to read and convert complex concepts into digestible ideas for Black people to consume and that elevated Raymond’s thirst to learn more about not just Black history in the U.S., but to learn about the great and majestic history of Africa and those leading the liberation movements across Africa including: Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Amilcar Cabral, Frantz Fanon, Sekou Toure, Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda, Nelson Mandela, Sam Nujoma, Eduardo Mondlane, Agostinho Neto.

Upon graduating from Atlanta University with a Master’s in Mathematics, Raymond was admitted to best Mathematics PhD programs in the nation, including Harvard University. Raymond said that Harvard did not award him scholarship money whereas the University of Illinois at Urbana not only offered a scholarship, but also a monthly stipend – and that’s where Raymond started to pursue his PhD. But being away from his family who were in Holly Springs, MS, Raymond at that time missed his family and did not complete the PhD program at the University of Illinois at Urbana and moved his family to Nashville, TN to become a Professor of Mathematics at HBCU Tennessee State University.

During his first stint as a Professor of Mathematics at Tennessee State University Raymond was recommended to become the Director of a new program at the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Martin Luther King, Jr. Fellows which offered Black veterans who served the U.S. Armed Forces during the Vietnam Era the opportunity to pursue graduate and professional degrees. Indeed, 245 MLK Fellows went on to earn either Master’s and/or PhD’s and they flourished in a range of fields, from law, mathematics, engineering, medicine. Raymond led and oversaw the “first-wave” of Black Americans getting PhD’s around the nation. Raymond didn’t just go to so-called good universities to have those Black Vietnam veterans placed, Raymond traveled all across the nation and met with the Presidents and/or the Head of Academic Affairs at such prestigious universities as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Cornell, MIT, University of California at Berkeley, UCLA, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor – to gain commitment for Black PhD candidates to be admitted. Raymond was now making the kind of impact that Malcolm X, Dr. Abdulalim Shabzz and his father Rich Richardson had urged him to make on this nation.

After making a national impact by leading the Woodrow Wilson MLK Fellows, Raymond felt compelled to pursue a new three-fold move: (1) complete his PhD in “pure” Mathematics, (2) dispel the fear and anxiety that many Black students held about math, (3) fight for the rights of marginalized people, particularly Black Americans and the African diaspora.

“The most important thing is that no Negro tolerate any ceiling on his ambitions or imagination.” Attorney Charles Hamilton Houston

Raymond returned to academics and went back to Nashville, TN to become Professor of Mathematics at HBCU Fisk University. During his stint at Fisk University, Raymond was admitted into Vanderbilt University’s “pure” Mathematics PhD program. Vanderbilt at that time had not graduated a single Black person in their “pure” Mathematics PhD program. Indeed, Vanderbilt’s Head of Mathematics, Dr. Charles S. Kahane and the Department Mathematics Professors Raymond took classes from did everything they could to convince Raymond that “no” Black person had the intellectual capacity and capability be able to earn a PhD in “pure” Mathematics from what was and is considered one of the Ivy League Universities of the South along with Duke University. Under Dr. Charles S. Kahane, Raymond was assigned 6x more problems to solve than any other student who had graduated from Vanderbilt’s “pure” Mathematics PhD program. Raymond was given fifty (50) problems to solve that no one in history had solved. Indeed, Vanderbilt Professors had been working on those same fifty (50) Mathematics problems for ten (10) years and had not yet to solve any of the fifty (50). In 1979, a seminal event happened, Raymond successfully solved all fifty (50) problems that no one on planet earth had been able to solve. When Raymond solved those fifty (50) Mathematics problems that had been pretty much deemed impossible to solve, that put a “bow” on Raymond’s brilliance that he indeed, was a genius.

Following solving those fifty (50) problems, Raymond completed his Dissertation and became the first Black person to receive a PhD in “pure” Mathematics at Vanderbilt University.

“You have to decide who you are and force the world to deal with you, not with it’s idea of you… Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.” James Baldwin

Once Raymond received his PhD, HBCU Tennessee State University which is located down the street from Fisk University recruited Raymond to become the Head of the Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science Department. When Dr. Abdulalim Shabazz stopped teaching for a period of time, his absence from teaching caused the number of Blacks in mathematics to decline sharply. In an interview, Dr. Abdulalim Shabazz said that Raymond was one of three Black world-class Mathematicians who was largely responsible for continuing the development of creating a pool of Blacks to go on and earn Master’s and PhD’s in mathematics.

“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” Dr. Benjamin E. Mays

Another major event took place in 1969 in which Raymond was compelled to act to preserve HBCU Tennessee State University as a predominantly Black university to be able to continue to be a pipeline for Black students to have access to a high-quality higher education.

In 1968 Tennessee’s colleges bore the hallmarks of segregation. Few Black Americans in the state of Tennessee attended institutions other than TSU. The funding formula generously supported the beneficiaries of past segregative policies, and TSU had, as a matter of state practice, been restricted in its growth. Additionally, the predominantly white universities enjoyed the benefits of an academic monopoly on professional and high-demand programs. The effect of these undeniable conditions on TSU and Black Americans was devastating. Then in 1968 UT Knoxville built a downtown campus against Tennessee State Law that forbid two (2) public four (4) year colleges in the city of Nashville, TN. Tennessee State University was founded in 1912 and was the only four (4) year public university in the city of Nashville until 1969, when violating Tennessee state law, UT Knoxville built a downtown campus in Nashville and then in 1971, it became a full-fledged, four (4) year degree-granting institution.

In 1972, the federal judge, Frank T. Gray, Jr., allowed Raymond Earl Richardson, Sr. (the Plaintiff Intervenor) and Sterling Adams (Black Professor of Mathematics at TSU) and nearly 100 other Black citizens from across Tennessee to enter the Geier case as plaintiffs. Raymond had formed “Tennesseans for Justice in Higher Education.” Raymond and Sterling Adams complaint centered on the issue that the presence in Nashville of two (2) state supported universities, Tennessee State University a historically Black institution and predominately white University of Tennessee at Nashville, perpetuated a state of segregation in higher education in Nashville. The attorney who represented Raymond and Sterling Adams was the brilliant Avon Williams.

In February 1977, Judge Gray ordered the merger of both institutions under the governance of Tennessee State University. This was the first and only time to this day in the history of this nation that a court in a higher education desegregation suite had ordered a Historically Black College to take over a predominately white one. Raymond Earl Richardson, Sr. had once again, rose to the occasion to uplift the Black community against seemingly insurmountable odds.

“You have to be there at the right time and you’ve got to be equipped.” Attorney William Henry Hastie

One other major national impact that needs to be highlighted that Raymond made to uplift the Black community was initiated in 1976 when Raymond, along with Dr. Levi Jones (then Head of the Sociology Department at TSU), Attorney Walter Searcy (then President of the Nashville Branch of the NAACP), Dr. Bobby Jones, (then TSU Music Professor who later became a Grammy Award Winner, Television Host, and Producer, best known for his long-running show, “Bobby Jones Gospel” on BET) founded the very first – “Black Expo” in the South and helped to launch many careers including Oprah Winfrey who was the winner of the very first Nashville Black Expo Beauty Pageant. Nashville Black Expo after several annual events was “copycatted” and Black Expo events started popping up all across the nation because various Black activists and entrepreneurs in other major cities throughout the U.S. saw the need to duplicate the Nashville Black Expo platform. Nashville Black Expo had Booths set up so that Black entrepreneurs could display their products and services and gain greater visibility and generate incremental sales. Nashville Black Expo held concerts in order to draw large crowds to visit the various events taking place that included: (1) Beauty Pageant, (2) Forums that included national civil rights activists and other Blacks who had large national platforms such as Jesse Jackson, Dick Gregory, Ted Lange (The Love Boat actor – who is also a producer and screenwriter), (3) Concerts (musical acts included: Ashford & Simpson, The O’Jays, Confunction, The Commodores, Kool & The Gang, Chuck Brown (father of GoGo Music), Natalie Cole, etc.). Raymond’s vision of Nashville Black Expo was to celebrate and expose Black excellence to the public and expose and elevate Black entrepreneurs.

Raymond devoted his life to dispelling the myth that Black students could not master math. Indeed, Raymond turned his mathematics genius through academic achievements and profound understanding of the role and importance of math in everyday life. Raymond taught his students the importance of discipline and rectitude along with math. Raymond maintained an open door policy to his office. Any student needing help could come to his office at any time. Using a special method of teaching, students quickly became high achievers in all areas of the discipline. Raymond would often tell stories to his students to let them know that mathematics was created by the Black African Ishango people of the Congo – who using the Ishango bone which demonstrates the first known method of finding primes – which would mean that African people, not the Greeks, first conceived of prime numbers. Raymond shared that with his Black students to educated them that they come from the first and greatest heritage of problem solving. Indeed, Raymond will forever be remembered as a “Master Teacher” whose storied career spanned several generations.

Raymond had wide-ranging interests and enjoyments included spending time with family, exchanging perspectives and intellectual debates, international affairs, reading about the arts, music, African diaspora, singing, going on boat cruises, playing cards, attending R&B, Jazz and Gospel Concerts, sports (football, basketball, boxing, baseball). Raymond especially enjoyed attending events in which HBCU Gospel Choirs sang, because it reminded him of his days as an exceptionally talented tenor who sang throughout the country when he was in the Rust College choir.

During his adult journey, Raymond was a voracious reader and watched a lot of speeches in person and on films he accessed and was influenced by towering Black intellects whose pursuit of excellence, greater wisdom, truth, fairness, justice and noble deeds inspired him including such visionaries as: Malcolm X, Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, Dr. Abdul alim Shabzz, Dr. Charles S. Johnson (President of Fisk University and creator of the Harlem Renaissance), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin, Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Paul Robeson, Frederick Douglas, Attorney Charles Hamilton Houston, Attorney William Henry Hastie, Langston Hughes, Howard Thurman, Dr. Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, Carter G. Woodson, Sojourner Truth, E. Franklin Fraizer, Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones), Attorney Avon Williams, Muhammad Ali, “Big John” Merritt, Joe Gilliam, Sr., Ed Temple, Frantz Fanon, Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Toure, Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda, Amilcar Cabral, Nelson Mandela, Robert Mugabe. Eduardo Mondlane, Agostinho Neto. Sam Nujoma.

Dr. Raymond Earl Richardson, Sr., story is one of resiliency, bravery, and hope and one of the noblest men of his generation.

Dr. Raymond Earl Richardson, Sr., legacy will endure and Theologian Howard Thurman who was one of the most influential religious figures of the 20th century best describes the tenant of Dr. Raymond Earl Richardson Sr’s enduring legacy and message to those who he wishes to continue to inspire and uplift.

“In the stillness of the quiet, if we listen, we can hear the whisper of the heart giving strength to weakness, courage to fear, hope to despair… There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls… Listen to the long stillness: New life is stirring. New dreams are on the wing. New hopes are being readied: Humankind is fashioning a new heart. Humankind is forging a new mind. God is at work. This is the season of Promise.”

Raymond Richardson, Jr.