James D. Richardson is the author of "The Abolitionist's Journal: The Memories of an American Antislavery Family." Over the course of more than twenty years, the author and his wife, Lori, retraced the steps of his ancestor, George Richardson (1824–1911) across nine states, uncovering letters, diaries, and more memoirs hidden away. Their journey brought them to the brink of the racial divide in America, revealing his great-great-grandfather Richardson’s involvement in the Underground Railroad, serving as the chaplain to a Black Union regiment in the Civil War and founding a college in Texas for the formerly enslaved.
In narrating this compelling life, The Abolitionist’s Journal explores the weight of the past as well the pull of one’s ancestral history. The author raises questions about why this fervent commitment to the emancipation of African Americans was nearly forgotten by his family, exploring the racial attitudes in the author’s upbringing and the ingrained racism that still plagues our nation today.
The author is an Episcopal priest and was the Chaplain of the California State Senate for four years.
Before entering the priesthood, Richardson was a Senior Writer with The Sacramento Bee, covering state and national politics, the California Legislature and two presidential campaigns. Richardson also is the author of "Willie Brown: A Biography," published by the University of California Press, about the former mayor of San Francisco and Assembly Speaker who was arguably the most powerful African American politician in the country in the 1990s. The book was a finalist for the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award in 1997, and critically acclaimed by the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, among other publications.
Richardson was previously a reporter with The Riverside Press-Enterprise with assignments including extensive coverage of the resurgent Ku Klux Klan in Southern California in the 1980s; former reporter with The San Diego Union covering environmental issues on the U.S. Border and the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
He has B.A. in history and anthropology from UCLA and a Master of Divinity from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley. He was a research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellow, and a lecturer at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
Richardson was a consultant and on-camera commentator for the PBS documentary "Unbought and Unbossed" about the 1972 presidential campaign of Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to run for president in a major party.
Richardson has written numerous articles and commentaries primarily about California politics in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Sacramento Bee, California Journal, and CalMatters. He was a regular guest commentator on KQED-San Francisco “This Week in Northern California” with Belva Davis in the mid-1990s.
He is a native of Northern California and lives in Sacramento.
