The Judy Richardson Papers include materials from her years working on staff at SNCC in Atlanta and Mississippi; her involvement with the Drum and Spear Bookstore in Washington D.C.; extensive print and audiovisual materials from her work in documentary film, including projects like Malcolm X: Make It Plain, Eyes on the Prize, and Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre; her correspondence and drafts from the editing of Hands on the Freedom Plow; project and event files from numerous committees, speaking engagements, and panels; personal files, including her FOIA about her SNCC service in the 1960s; and subject files collected from various projects.
Materials are arranged into series based on format and topic. The Hands on the Freedom Plow Series is closed until 2020. Original audiovisual materials are closed to use.
Judy Richardson was born in Tarrytown, New York, and attended Swarthmore College before joining the civil rights movement in 1963. She worked for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from 1963 to 1966, with posts in Atlanta, Mississippi, and Alabama. She worked for the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project and also coordinated the operation of a Residential Freedom School in 1965.
Richardson then joined the staff of the Drum and Spear bookstore in Washington, D.C., and spent several years serving as its children's editor and director (1968-1972). During the 1970s she also founded and managed the Maelezo Bookstore (1972-1973), worked for and later directed the Black Student Fund (1973-1977), and meanwhile took college courses at both Howard University and Columbia University. She eventually earned a degree in children's literature from Antioch College (1977).
Richardson joined Blackside, Inc., in 1978, becoming an advisor and then associate producer of Eyes on the Prize I and II, an award-winning PBS series on the civil rights movement. She also co-produced Blackside's Malcolm X: Make It Plain, another documentary. In 1982, she began working for the United Church of Christ's Commission for Racial Justice, writing commentaries and serving as its Director of Information from 1984 until 1989. Richardson worked for Blackside until 1999, serving as producer and education director. In 2001, she joined Northern Light Productions, and produced several historical documentaries and educational films.
Richardson co-edited Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC, which was published by University of Illinois Press in 2010. She became a distinguished visiting professor at Brown University in 2012.
