Crusade for Voters to celebrate 65th anniversary with banquet Oct. 14
10/7/2021, 6 p.m.
The Richmond Crusade for Voters, the area’s oldest Black political group, will mark its 65th anniversary with a scholarship banquet 6 p.m. next Thursday, Oct. 14, it has been announced.
Location: Cedar Street Baptist Church of God, 2301 Cedar St. in Church Hill.
Radio talk show host Gary Flowers will emcee the event, and the James “Saxmo” Gates Group, featuring Michael Hawkins, Weldon Hill and Billy Williams, will provide entertainment, according to the program.
The Crusade was started in 1956 as an offshoot of the Richmond Branch NAACP during the tumult over public school integration following the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision two years earlier striking down the “separate but equal” doctrine that allowed for separation of the races.
The organization was the brainchild of late podiatrist William S. Thornton, who was joined by the late NAACP organizer John M. Brooks and Dr. William Ferguson Reid, a physician who was elected in November 1967 to the House of Delegates, becoming the first African-American to serve in the General Assembly since 1890.
The idea was to create a group that would educate voters on the need to participate in elections and to create a bloc of sup- porters to back candidates that looked out for Black interests. Years of effort paid off with the election of Dr. Reid and later other candidates.
Tickets are $50 and available on Eventbrite, an online ticket provider.
Details: (804) 839-3539.
