Program

NYS Historic

Subject

People

Location

Future Village Park, 37 W Main St, Washingtonville, NY 10992, USA

Lat/Long

41.425908, -74.16971

Grant Recipient

Village of Washingtonville

Naomi Sewell Richardson was born on September 24, 1892. In 1901, her father took up the post of Presbyterian minister in Washingtonville, NY, and her family moved there from Maryland. Naomi graduated from the Washingtonville High School and is known as the first Black graduate of the school in 1910. In her biography, A Quiet Life of Dignity, written based on interviews with her, Naomi described her graduation as one of 5 students and as creating a stir in the community (1995). She described the speech she gave at her graduation as being focused on the advancement of African American people. Even at a young age, Naomi was engaged in social activism.

When she attended Howard University following her graduation, Naomi became one of the 22 founding members of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority in 1913. The sorority founders are known for their involvement in the 1913 Women’s March in Washington, D.C. African American women were not always welcomed at suffrage events, so their participation was significant. The sorority was founded with the intention of not only being a social group, but an actively working organization advancing the issues of both women’s suffrage and civil rights. Today they are an international organization with over 1,000 chapters across the globe, with a focus on public service and the Black community (“Purpose”, Deltasigmatheta.org).

Naomi Sewell graduated from Howard University in 1914 from their Teacher’s College, earning both a Bachelor of Arts and a Teachers Diploma in Education. Following her graduation, she went to teach in East St. Louis, IL for three years but left due to the racial riots that were occurring in 1917. She moved to Princeton, NJ to take up a position in a segregated school teaching the fourth and fifth grades. In 1920 Naomi left Princeton and married Clarence W. Richardson, who she had known from Howard University. They moved to New York City, and Naomi taught for the city schools. She became active with the New York Alumnae Chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

In 1947, Clarence Richardson passed away, and Naomi Sewell Richardson moved back to Washingtonville, NY, where she cared for her elderly mother and brother. In 1978, she joined the Mid-Hudson Valley Alumnae Chapter and was active with them until her death in 1993. Naomi Sewell Richardson passed away on August 5, 1993, at 100 years old.