The Nonviolent Action Committee in Maryland, 1963-64

Letter to the editor of the Washington Post, July 31, 2021

As one who was a volunteer with the Cambridge, Md., Nonviolent Action Committee (CNAC) at the height of its activities (1963 to 1964), and who stayed in Gloria Richardson’s house on Muir Street for much of that first summer, I take strong exception to a throwaway line that was contained in Richardson’s July 18 obituary, Firebrand rights activist on Eastern Shore of Md. The obituary reported, “She was working in her father’s drugstore when the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a nationwide civil rights group known as SNCC, and the , who rode interstate buses to confront segregation, targeted Cambridge in 1961. When another relative left the role, Ms. Richardson assumed the chairmanship of a SNCC affiliate, the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee — a misnomer, given the organization’s belief in violence as an agent of change.”

At the height of that movement, when Richardson was the public face of CNAC, was the chairman of SNCC, and the only gunfire by anyone associated with that organization as long as he was its leader was strictly in reply to armed assaults initiated by Whites.

On the night of July 11, 1963, following an early evening by local Black residents to the Dorchester County Courthouse in which they were assaulted repeatedly with bottles and rocks, successive groups of White night riders drove down Pine Street, the main street in Ward 2, firing indiscriminately into houses and businesses. In reply, many Black homeowners returned the fire, and eventually the night riders knew they’d met their match and retreated. That night of gunfire — wholly initiated by Whites — brought about the return of the Maryland National Guard, after a withdrawal that had lasted for all of three days.

Earlier that day, a group of protesters, me among them, attempted to be served at a downtown restaurant (Dizzyland) and were beaten and thrown out onto the sidewalk, while the local Cambridge police stood by and did nothing. Not one of us retaliated in any way, nor did any of the Black onlookers who witnessed the beatings. Newspapers all over the country, including The Post, reported on the incident.

In 1966, three years later, the public image of SNCC took a turn when replaced Lewis as chairman, and “” became the catchphrase most associated with the organization. But even then, its alleged “belief in violence” was in practice limited to self- defense. I challenge anyone to find examples of violence being initiated by members of SNCC, either during the “Black Power” phase or, even more emphatically, during the years when Richardson was the public voice of the Cambridge movement and Lewis was the chairman of SNCC.

It gets tiresome to keep reading accounts of the Cambridge movement that constantly imply that the violence that accompanied it was somehow caused by “both sides.” If you invade my house and start shooting at me, and I shoot back, does that make me equally responsible for the incident?

Andy Moursund, Kensington