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Elizabeth’s fiancé and John’s biological father. Richard moves to Maryland in 1919, escaping the deep-seated racial violence in the South for the promise of opportunity in the North. He works as a clerk in the store Elizabeth frequents with her aunt, and Elizabeth notices him immediately. He is described as “beautiful” and “nervous.” He is “sullen” and “barely polite” to his customers, which speaks to the level of Richard’s exhaustion. As a black man, Richard was treated as a second-class citizen in the South. He has seen violence and knows real fear, and he is tired and incredibly angry. He tries to regain some of the power white America has taken from him by honing his intellect. Through his intelligence, Richard tries to prove he is as good as everyone else, and he looks to move farther North yet in search of more opportunities to better himself. He convinces Elizabeth to move to New York with him and she agrees, and they move to Harlem and work in the same hotel. Richard and Elizabeth are happy together and plan on getting married, and while Richard doesn’t know it, she is already pregnant with his child. Richard is arrested late one night while waiting for a subway train. A group of black men runs up to him after robbing a “white man’s store,” and Richard is arrested right along with them. He tells the racists police and store owner that he was not with the offenders, but they “make no distinction” between Richard and the other black men. The police beat him and imprison him for weeks as he awaits trial, and while he is ultimately released, the damage is already done. Richard commits suicide immediately after getting out of jail, the weight of his racist society too much to bear. Through Richard, Baldwin argues the futility in trying to overcome racism in America. Richard moves across the country and learns as much as he possibly can to get the respect of white people, and he dies trying.
Richard Quotes in Go Tell It on the Mountain
The Go Tell It on the Mountain quotes below are all either spoken by Richard or refer to Richard. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Part 2: The Prayers of the Saints: Elizabeth’s Prayer Quotes
Richard said that they would marry as soon as he had saved some money. But since he was going to school at night and made very little money, their marriage, which she had thought of as taking place almost as soon as she arrived, was planned for a future that grew ever more remote. And this presented her with a problem that she had refused, at home in Maryland, to think about, but from which, now, she could not escape: the problem of their life together. […] She had kept, precariously enough, what her aunt referred to as her pearl without price while she had been with Richard down home. This, which she had taken as witness to her own feminine moral strength, had been due to nothing more, it now developed, than her great fear of her aunt, and the lack, in that small town, of opportunity. Here, in this great city where no one cared, where people might live in the same building for years and never speak to one another, she found herself, when Richard took her in his arms, on the edge of a steep place: and down she rushed, on the descent uncaring, into the dreadful sea.
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This passage occurs as Elizabeth loses her virginity to Richard, and it underscores the sexist nature of America’s patriarchal society as well as the oppressive nature of Christianity. Both Elizabeth’s religion and society dictate that she must wait until marriage to have sex or else be shunned and scorned. The importance of remaining pure is reflected in Elizabeth’s aunt’s reference to Elizabeth’s “pearl without price.” If Elizabeth allows herself to be sexually tainted, she will become undesirable, much like Deborah, although the same can’t be said for Richard. Elizabeth doesn’t remain a virgin because she thinks to have sex is Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit.
There was not, after all, a great difference between the world of the North and that of the South which she had fled; there was only this difference: the North promised more. And this similarity: what it promised it did not give, and what it gave, at length and grudgingly with one hand, it took back with the other. Now she understood in this nervous, hollow, ringing city, that nervousness of Richard’s which had so attracted her—a tension so total, and so without the hope, or possibility of release, or resolution, that she felt it in his muscles, and heard it in his breathing, even as on her breast he fell asleep.
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This passage occurs after Elizabeth moves North with Richard and they discover that the North is just as racist as the South. With this, the book again suggests the futility in trying to overcome or resist racism in America. Elizabeth and Richard move North to escape the hatred and racism of the South, but they only find more of the same. The North “promises” black Americans better jobs and education and some relief from the indignity of Jim Crow, but it does not deliver, and it is this type of repeated abuse and marginalization that leads to Richard’s “nervousness” and Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta
“I just decided me one day that I was going to get to know everything them white bastards knew, and I was going to get to know it better than them, so could no white son-of-a-bitch nowhere never talk me down, and never make me feel like I was dirt, when I could read him the alphabet, back, front, and sideways. Shit—he weren’t going to beat my ass, then. And if he tried to kill me, I’d take him with me, I swear to my mother I would.” Then he looked at her again, and smiled and kissed her, and he said: “That’s how I got to know so much, baby.”
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This quote, which occurs when Elizabeth asks Richard how he got to be so smart, underscores the racism present in American society and the lengths Richard must go to in order to be considered equal. America’s racist society assumes that Richard can’t be both black and smart, but he is exceedingly intelligent, and he is always reading a book. Richard spends time in museums studying and appreciating art, and he is trying to save money so he can go to school. Richard thinks that if he is smart enough, then white people will have to respect him, but, tragically, this Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae
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Richard Character Timeline in Go Tell It on the Mountain
The timeline below shows where the character Richard appears in Go Tell It on the Mountain. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 2: The Prayers of the Saints: Elizabeth’s Prayer
As the church sings the nostalgic hymn, Elizabeth thinks of Richard. He had been the one to take Elizabeth to the North. He had arrived in...
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Once, Elizabeth had gone into the store without her aunt, and Richard had flirted with her. He later asked her if she still remembered that day. Of...
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Richard hated the South and planned on going to New York, and he wanted Elizabeth to...
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...“spiritualist séances” each Saturday night. Elizabeth worked as a maid in the same hotel where Richard worked the elevator. They had little money, and their marriage “was planned for a future...
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...“with one hand, it “took back with the other.” But she never thought of leaving Richard. She had loved him. They had “been very happy together,” and “he had been very...
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Elizabeth and Richard often went to museums, and she had been shocked the first time he suggested it....
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One night, after spending the entire evening together, Richard left Elizabeth at Madame Williams’s and went to catch the subway home. He was planning...
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...got past their brutal laughter.” The officers questioned her, making her feel uncomfortable. “What was [Richard] doing with you, girl, until two o’clock in the morning?” one officer asked. “Next time...
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Elizabeth was finally allowed to see Richard the next day in the jail where he was being held. He had been appointed...
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Richard was arrested along with the other three black men for robbery, and he told the...
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...had known for some time that she was pregnant, but she didn’t want to worry Richard while he was in jail and could do nothing about it. She “hated” New York,...
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Richard was eventually released. The jury found insufficient evidence to convict him, and “the courtroom seemed...
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...don’t get walked over by some no-count man.” It wasn’t like that, Elizabeth told her. Richard had “died.” Florence moved to comfort her again. “The menfolk, they die,” Florence said, “and...
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