Ben Richardson

Ben Richardson was born in Jacksonville, FL in 1914. He received his degree from Florida A&M University and then entered Harvard Divinity School in 1939. Richardson was a talented artist and musician. He painted a mural at Harvard’s Andover Hall, which is today no longer in existence. In the early 1940s, he served as associate pastor under Adam Clayton Powell at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York. During WWII, Richardson served his country as a chaplain. In 1945, he wrote a book called “Great American Negroes”, which was an introduction to African American history and was used in many classrooms during its time.

Richardson moved to Chicago in the late 1940s where he became a prominent civil rights leader and activist minister in Hyde Park. In the 1950s, the sales of Richardson’s artwork provided underprivileged children with the opportunity to go to summer camp. In the 1970s, Richardson hosted a television program in Chicago called “Everyman” and a radio program called “Little Church of the Air”. He won an Emmy for his television efforts. Later in life, Richardson taught History at DePaul University in Chicago. Today, there is an endowed chair in his name. Richardson died at the age on 78 in 1992.