Henry Richardson: Key Figure in Amending the State Constitution to Integrate the National Guard

Henry J. Richardson, Jr., was also instrumental in amending the state constitution to allow integration of the National Guard and he helped end racial discrimination at Indiana University, which had prohibited blacks from living in campus dormitories.

He then returned to Indianapolis to attend the Indiana University School of Law, earning his LL.B.

Richardson was also instrumental in amending the state constitution to allow integration of the National Guard and he helped end racial discrimination at Indiana University, which had prohibited blacks from living in campus dormitories.

Richardson challenged his colleagues to “put teeth” into the state’s existing civil rights law, a measure enacted in 1885 but largely emasculated by the courts in succeeding years.

Richardson died in Indianapolis on December 5, 1983.