Samuel Alonzo Richardson was born December 25, 1892, in Charleston, South Carolina, to Charles Richardson and Mary White Richardson (Kuennen, 2022). In 1912, after receiving a 2-year diploma from Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University), Samuel then came to Iowa State College to study veterinary medicine. While attending ISC, he was summoned back to South Carolina due to the sudden death of his father. He worked for the Roup shoe store the summer of 1917 but left the position to “enter the senior class” at ISC. Richardson earned his Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from ISC in 1918.
During his time in Ames, he lived in several locations: Boone & Welsh, Frank’s Place (2840 West Street), and 157 Campus Avenue. Like Black classmates, he joined the Corps of Cadets, which helped to subsidize his tuition at ISC, having reached the rank of Sergeant by the time he registered for the WWI draft in June 1917. Upon graduation, a “reception for the colored boys who are caled (sic) to the colors” was held by Mr. and Mrs. Gater on Kellogg Avenue to honor Dr. Richardson, as well as four other students, before they left Ames to enter (“Ames, IA,” 1918).
After the war, Richardson returned to Iowa. He married Mildred Ethel Beaubian at the A.M.E. Church in Boone, Iowa, on September 19, 1920. The following year, Richardson began coursework at the University of Iowa to pursue a career in medicine. He completed a B.S. in 1926 and his M.D. in 1926. Graduation was followed by interning at a Chicago hospital and, in 1929, a move to Milwaukee, WI, where he was licensed to practice medicine that January (Kuennen, 2022). When Dr. Richardson appeared with his wife and two children in the 1930 U.S. Census, he was working as a meat inspector at a packing house. By the time of the 1940 U.S. Census, two children later, he was employed as a physical scientist at a Milwaukee hospital. He was self-employed as an M.D. by the time he registered for the Old Man’s Draft in 1942.
By 1950, the Richardsons had separated, and Samuel had returned to Charleston, where he opened a shoe repair store. How long he was employed in the profession he worked at while attending ISC is unknown, but at the time of his death ten years later, his occupation was once again listed as “veterinarian.”
Dr. Samuel Alonzo Richardson, died 28 July 1960, at the age of 68 of natural causes in Lincolnville, SC, and is buried in the Reserved Fellowship Cemetery in Charleston, SC.
Sources
Ames, IA. (1918, July 19). The bystander. n.p.
Kuennen, Brad, ISU Veterinary Medicine early graduates of color, University Library, Iowa State University,. Retrieved from https://instr.iastate.libguides.com/c.php?g=1224480&p=8958307
