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Faydra Richardson

2020-2021

Tallahassee, FL

Faydra was born and raised in Tallahassee, Fla., and graduated from Dartmouth College with her Bachelor of Arts degree in 2020. She majored in African and African American Studies (AAAS) and studied conceptions of race in the United States and while abroad in France. Beyond race, Faydra studied classics and archaeology, traveling to Greece, London, and Sicily, informing her perspective on how different cultures perceive and act upon socioeconomic and racial disparities.

Through her study in various geo-political locations, Faydra discovered her love and interest in racial politics in the American South. This interest in the South led her to MDC, where she applied and accepted the position as the 2020-2021 Autry Fellow.

Prior to MDC, Faydra participated in the Strengthening Educational Access with Dartmouth (SEAD) Program as an Educational Access Advisor (EAA). SEAD works with high school students who are low-income and/or aspire to be first-generation college graduates. She also participated in Dartmouth’s Student Advisory Board for the university’s Sexual Violence Prevention Project. Through her work, Faydra was introduced to the formal world of systemic change.

In her year as the Autry Fellow, Faydra looked forward to diving forward into community-driven work. She was excited to shift her focus from learning about historic systems of inequity to leaving the classroom and actually challenging those systems.