George C. Richardson (1931-2021) was a maverick civil rights leader who served four terms in the New Jersey State Assembly in the 1960s and 1970s.
Richardson had sought to become the first Black to serve in the New Jersey Senate and challenged Rep. Peter W. Rodino (D-Newark) in the Democratic primary after congressional redistricting created a Black majority in New Jersey’s 10th district in 1972.
As a freshman lawmaker, Richardson helped pass a bill to curb segregated housing that forced people of color to live in ghettos and sponsored legislation that created a commission to study segregation in public schools, fought racially-biased zoning laws.
He worked as a corrections officer and leader of the Newark branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People before becoming a state legislator.
A leading force in the rise of Black political representation in the city of Newark, Richardson was 30-years-old when Essex County Democrats put him on their nine-member slate of Assembly candidates in 1961.
The launch of his political career came after a life of early turbulence. His mother died when he was 10, and he began looting factories, got into fights with white gangs, and was arrested and sent to the Essex Youth House twice.
He lied about his age and enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 14 and returned to Newark at 17. A year later, he enlisted in the Air Force, where he was promoted to sergeant but was dishonorably discharged after he got caught stealing military property to fund a heroin addiction.
But by the time he returned to Newark in the late 1950s, he had beaten his drug habit and turned his life around. In nine campaigns, his past had never become an issue or found out by journalists.
State Assembly seats were apportioned based on population – each county had one senator – but all nine Essex seats were elected in an at-large, countywide election.
Richardson finished sixth in a field of 31 candidates with 137,393 votes in race where Democrats won eight of the nine Assembly seats. Five incumbent Republican lawmakers – Philip Lindeman (R-West Orange), Herbert Tate (R-Newark), Frank Bate (R-Essex Fells), Beatrice Stiles (R-Bloomfield) and William Everett (R-West Caldwell) – were defeated for re-election. Richardson finished 10,484 votes ahead of Lindeman.
After taking office in 1962, Richardson became the only Black member of the New Jersey Legislature. At one point in his first term, he publicly criticized state NAACP leaders for failing to provide strong support of his school segregation legislation.
He angered some top Democrats, including Newark Mayor Hugh Addonizio, when he led a move to create a civilian review board to examine allegations of police brutality in Newark. He also strongly criticized the newly-elected Democratic governor, Richard J. Hughes, for not embracing reforms to end racial biases in housing.
Richardson and Republican Alfred Beadleston (R-Red Bank) became the deciding votes to defeat a bill that would have allowed store owners the right to detain suspected shoplifters.
After his election to the Assembly, Richardson became the executive secretary of the Newark Insurance Fund Committee.
State Senate bid
Essex County had an epic race for State Senate in 1963, the last time each county elected just one senator regardless of population.
Democrats decided to dump their two-term incumbent senator, Donal C. Fox (D-South Orange) from their ticket after he feuded with the county chairman, Dennis Carey.
After one term in the Assembly, the 32-year-old Richardson, became a candidate for the Democratic Senate nomination after Essex Democrats decided not to support two-term State Sen Donal C. Fox (D-South Orange) for…
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