In Loving Memory
Elizabeth “Betty” Garman Robinson
Elizabeth “Betty” Garman Robinson was born January 8, 1939 in New York City and raised in Pleasantville, NY. Throughout her life, Betty was passionate about organizing against injustice. She knew the importance of connecting with people and, wherever she found herself, Betty developed deep and lasting personal bonds.
Betty moved to Atlanta in March 1964 to work full-time in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) office. During her years with SNCC Betty was the Northern Friends of SNCC Coordinator; Chair of the University of California, Berkeley, Friends of SNCC chapter; and a member of the SNCC staff in Atlanta, Georgia, Greenwood, Mississippi, and at the Washington, D.C. SNCC office.
In 1972 Betty moved to Baltimore to work in a factory, organizing a rank and file movement within the union. For eighteen years after that she worked in public health, first as a researcher in occupational medicine at Baltimore City Hospitals and then at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health as a researcher on injury prevention and HIV-AIDS studies. Betty also was the Lead Organizer for the Citizens Planning and Housing Association (CPHA), which organized communities to take action on quality of life issues in the Baltimore region.
In 2003 she was one of ten Baltimoreans to receive an Open Society Institute Community Fellowship. Her project was to popularize the history of social justice organizing in Baltimore. She later began the Baltimore chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), a national organization calling white people in to work for racial justice. In November 2017, she was appointed to serve on the Baltimore City Civilian Review Board. Betty is co-editor of “Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC” (University of Illinois Press, 2010) and served on the SNCC 60th Anniversary Conference Planning Committee.
Betty unexpectedly died on October 11, 2020. She is survived by her brother, two daughters, three grandchildren, and an extremely large network of other family and friends who loved her deeply. Please join us to celebrate the life and legacy of this amazing sister, mother, grandmother, friend, organizer, and social justice fighter.
Tributes
The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee Staff: Betty Garman Robinson
Robert L. Bogomolny Library: Remembering Betty Garman Robinson
WYPR: “Move on the System:” Remembering Local Activist Betty Garman Robinson
Facebook: Betty Garman Robinson
Learn More About Betty and Her Life’s Work
Library of Congress: Betty Garman Robinson Oral History Interview
Julian Bond Oral History Project: Betty Garman Robinson
Online Celebration of Life
Friday, December 4
1:00 PM Eastern
Please join us for a celebration of Betty’s life and legacy. Information on how to join the ceremony is below.
Before the day of the ceremony
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On the day of the ceremony
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Guestbook
Please join us in celebrating Betty’s life and legacy by sharing your stories and memories of her.
I’m not sure that I knew SNCC without Betty being an integral part of it. She was just always there, always doing the work. Clear in her work ethic and clear in her thinking. Later, we were in Washington at the same time, part of a group of people in the IPS/Adams Morgan orbit. Afterwards, we saw each other only occasionally. But, It really didn’t matter how much time elapsed between visits. We shared lived experience, unshakable values, and a commitment to leave the world a better place. She will always be here with us in the circle of trust . . . always doing the work. But I will miss her.
Ms. Betty was one of the greatest people I encountered in this movement work. Her heart was pure. Her guidance was endless. My world is forever changed by her impact. Thankful for her love and light!
Betty was a movement champion. Whatever the cause, Betty was there with commitment and impact and caring. Civil rights, labor rights, women’s rights, education, health care and more. She made everything she was involved with better. She made everyone she worked with better. We carry on her spirit and her love and her work. And we miss her.
Ms. Betty,
I miss you so much. I miss our brunch sessions where we would discuss politics, share movement/organizing memories, and sustain optimism for a different world.
You were such an amazing, brilliant, and kind person. Thank you for modeling what radical and lifelong devotion to liberatory politics and movement life looks like.
I love you and thank you for sharing your gifts with so many of us.
Love,
Rosemary
Betty was a warrior of a woman! A mother, and grandmother of beautiful young men and women. She caught the good fight leading and teaching others along the way. She was always a pleasure to see and somehow always randomly run into. She would always leave me with something to think about!
Betty was a true friend and mentor to me. I have fond memories of the good times we shared. We drove Algebra Project youth to Atlanta to the United States Social Forum as chaperones. We were roommates and the entire trip was a learning experience. I also had the pleasure of creating a specific playlist for her 70th Birthday at the Cork Gallery. She helped me understand the importance of the community work I was doing. Betty introduced me to BNON, CPHA, OSI and a host of like minded colleagues. Her legacy of fighting for social justice for a lifetime will live on! I am simply grateful that I met her, so I shall celebrate her life. Thank You Betty ❤️🙏🏾
Betty was an amazing woman, mother and friend. She greeted everyone and the world with a welcoming smile, embraced life and lived a rewarding, challenging and full life!
Betty and I were friends for forty years. We talked regularly an saw each other weekly. I watched Tanya and Keisha grow up. We shared family events. I remember barbecues with Tom and his brother Louis on Southview Rd. She brought Jeffery and Mackenzie to my house for Passover Seder or to play with my grandkids when my daughter came in from LA
I was happy to be her diversion from her serious civil rights work. We went to Everyman together and movies at the Charles on Saturday nights. We compared notes on how our bodies were weathering the aging process. We talked politics and racial issues We were good friends We studied Spanish intensely in Mexico and on a STITCH trip to Guatemala where we visited banana workers in their homes. They trying to organize unions in the banana industry. At that point we could converse with them in Spanish!
I think of Betty almost every day and want to ask her a question about an article I read or maybe just about a computer function. She was my computer guru in the early days of Word Perfect. I miss my dear friend badly. I miss sharing recipes. She was the most accepting, understanding person, able to suggest another way of looking at a problem in her gentle way, educating and yet always ready to listen.
Betty I love you❤️
Betty and I were both government majors and friends at Skidmore College and I can’t believe she’s gone. I liked and respected her enormously. We kept in touch sporadically through the years; she even brought her two young daughters down to Washington to test toys for me, when I ran ADA’s Christmas Toy Price and Quality Report. We shared the same values, but as the Quakers would say, she truly “let her life speak.”
Betty you truly will be missed, as I used to tell you in our conversations, you reminded me so much of my Grandmother and her work with the Democratic Party for voting rights. I appreciate all I learned from you musically (I will miss the cues you gave to help keep me on track) and politically. Truly a special light a goodness.
“Those we love never truly leave us.
There are things that even death cannot touch.”
-Jack Thorne
Betty Robinson has touched so many lives, especially ours. We are so grateful to have known and loved Betty for all that she was. A daughter, mother, friend, mentor, freedom fighter and so much more.
Betty Robinson was truly on the freedom side and she taught us how to fight. Betty began her freedom-fighting journey as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Not only was she a gifted organizer, but a true strategist who got to share community with some of the greatest minds of the Civil Rights era. Thankfully that journey led her to serve on the board of the Baltimore Algebra Project where we, Michaela, Ralikh, and Tre, began our organizing journey.
Betty never missed an opportunity to love us, to challenge us, or to educate us. She treated us as if we were her children, nurturing us in the way of Ella Baker and SNCC model of organizing.
At every step of our organizing journey, she challenged us to think about every interaction as an organizing opportunity, an opportunity to not just grow our base but to publicize our people who are at the margins. She fought alongside us whether it was for education and youth jobs or police accountability. She stood up for us when we could not stand up for ourselves. She nursed our wounds and encouraged us to get up again whenever we fell. This led to 10+ years of deep community with Betty Robinson.
One of the most transformative things she did for us was to connect Ralikh with Denise Perry of Black Organizing for Leadership & Dignity (BOLD). BOLD is the place that has allowed us to dream and scheme about what building a beautiful world for future generations was deeply cemented. BOLD has held us, nurtured us, and developed our praxis, while deepening our connection to movement history. In hindsight, we believe that is when Betty realized we would be committed to this work for life. Betty always saw things in us that we did not see.
We are forever grateful for her well of knowledge, her fighter spirit, and selfless nature. Betty fought long and hard and it is only right that we continue to fight in her name.
“In life, we loved you dearly.
In death, we love you still.
In our hearts, you hold a place no one else will fill.”
-unknown
Betty taught me the ropes to fund raising when I had to run to run the
LA/Hollywood SNCC office, 1964-65. With patience, she also reinforced the key to organizing…listening. I learned. Good people, Betty. Good people.
Aluta Continua.
Betty was so special. While she was ever ready to talk about ideas, People, especially young people and her own family, were always at the center of her work. If Betty asked for financial help for a project, you simply knew your contribution would be well spent, one that would aid in organizing, in developing new leaders. I remember passing on several copies of Hands on the Freedom Plow to the women in my family, hoping they would appreciate how love, knowledge and strength can and will come together to change our world. Betty always showed us what was truly important. Deep condolences to Betty’s family and so many others who were honored by her friendship.
I got to know Betty in the spring of 1970, when I came to Washington DC to help organize the April 10th Women’s March on the Pentagon. I stayed in a house where she lived with other members of an activist women’s collective. We quickly bonded, our friendship partly based on our shared history in SNCC. We reconnected at the SNCC 50th Reunion. We discovered a common involvement in radical community organizing, hers in Baltimore and mine in Boston. When I visited her in Baltimore, she gave me the most amazing tour of the geography of political struggle there and introduced me to some community leaders. It was so clear that she was loved and respected as an elder, a teacher and someone who always showed up. I am still shocked and trying to process this terrible loss. I had been so looking forward to seeing her at the SNCC 60th. May her memory, her example, her spirit continue to inspire us on this long journey.
I am in tears. Betty was a part of my life since our days at Skidmore and was one of my bridesmaids when I married in 1960. I am delighted that we continued to stay friends and were able to visit each other through out the many years since then. Betty was special. We could always talk from our hearts to each other. I’ll miss you, dear buddy.
Betty was so generous with her time and so sincere in her commitments. I am grateful and honored to say she was my friend. We met serving on a board together many years ago and became fast friends and connected in so many ways. Through the years she continued to teach me new things about commitment and organizing. We have helped each other out in ways that will be with me forever. She introduced me to people that were near and dear to her like family and organizing family- the young people at the Algebra Project. They were the folks who told me she passed. I know she is now our ancestor and will continue to guide us. I will be listening for her.
We have lost one of our bright lights, but her legacy lives on. Although our dear friend, Betty has journeyed on, she lives on in our hearts and minds. I am in awe of her work, accomplishments and amazing life. We sang together once a week and during those moments, Betty was always friendly, kind, and ready to give a hand if help was needed. I am learning here about the extraordinary work and life she led, yet was never pretentious and carried on with grace. I so wish I had known you better and thus it is my loss. No doubt, you have been a precious gift to us all and your footprint shall forever remain. Thank you, Betty.
I met Betty when she was my next door neighbor in Berkeley, and the SNCC rep in the region. She was one of the people who drew me to SNCC. When she left for Atlanta, Chuck McDew asked me to take the position. Soon I was on the staff. That was the beginning of a friendship that lasted through our lives. We corresponded, spoke occasionally on the phone, and always visited when she was in the Bay Area or I was in the DC/Baltimore area. On numerous occasions, I was her house guest. We shared values that were central to our beings, and had different organizing ideas about how to implement them. That was the source of many lively, always mutually respectful, conversations. Betty was an exemplary Movement person.
We also had warm conversations about our respective families: her daughters and grandkids, my step kids and grandkids. Nothing made her prouder than her family’s doings and accomplishments. I got to meet Keisha, Tanya and their kids, and remember how much she enjoyed introducing them. Our paths crossed in The Algebra Project; we last saw each other when my partner Kathy and I stayed with her in Baltimore about a year ago. We were there to see the opening of Gene Bruskin’s play “The Moment Was Now,” which both Betty and I helped launch.
Betty was a good friend. I will miss her.
Dear Betty,
Many thanks. Much Love.
Always,
Topper
I first became aware of Betty through a friend of mine in The Charm City Labor chorus as an attendee of many of their concerts….as as things often happen in ‘Smalltimore ” when I pounded the for sale sign for a house I was selling by Lake Montebello, Betty was the first to arrive. She told me she would often drive through the neighborhood looking for an opportunity to buy a house there….and well of course she bought it…in 2012 I moved back to the neighborhood and we became close neighbors having many wonderful conversations over the years about racial justice and the world in general….I did some handyman jobs for her,which was just more time to share thoughts and ideas….she was a great neighbor and I will miss her….she loved her little yard and garden and that’s how i will remember her….playing outside….when she passed there were pansies in a box on the front porch waiting to be planted
Betty was wonderful. She lived life so fully as an individual and as a member of her beloved community. The service reflected that so many loved her, as she loved them.
I knew Betty from our police reform work on CJSJ. It was impossible to sit alongside her and not recognize her goodness, her graciousness, her fierce lifelong drive, and hope, for justice. Betty was a kind and loving person in a hard world and she was deeply moral – in the best sense. A singular human being I am grateful to have crossed paths with. May Betty be an eternal inspiration to those whose lives she touched.
Betty taught me so many things. She brought me into her home. She brought me into her family. I loved hearing stories and being challenged by her. I will take her lessons and live them the best I can and pass them on to all who will listen.
So much love to Betty and her beautiful family <3
Betty was like a mother to me and my brothers and sisters. Shes an angel gone on to heaven. She will always be with us and a part of us.
We love love you and miss you, love you forever.
We moved to Baltimore in 1987. I don’t remember when I first met Betty but since it soon became clear that she was everywhere there are any number of paths towards social justice we could have met on! But what I remember above all was her energy, directness, and warmth. Hard to believe I won’t run into her in the neighborhood…too hard to believe. What a lovely ceremony! Thank you to everyone.
So grateful for this beautiful celebration of Betty’s life. Often we do not celebrate people until they have made their transition to The Ancestors. But Betty knew the esteem and love in which she is/was held. That — and knowing that love lives forever — is comfort and support.
BETTY. LIVED. HER. PURPOSE. with humbleness, love, curiosity, and integrity. That we would all be so blessed as to be able to say the same when we transition.
Holding all her family, family of friends, and all those who loved and respected her, in prayer and meditation,
Each week, Betty would come to volunteer in my Baltimore city classroom. She would step into the door, and the 1st and 2nd graders would all smile and call out, “Ms. Betty!” They would run over and give her hugs. She would sit with them, and read to them, and teach them history, a history she lived. She faithfully came to all of their presentations and plays and our monthly potlucks and made each child feel like they were amazing. They would sing for her, freedom songs, and she would sing with them. She listened to them talk about the math problems they were solving as if they themselves were discoverers. She would read and comment on the stories they were writing and drawing as if the works were masterpieces. Each week, she would offer appreciations to individuals kids, naming the kindnesses she witnessed in this small community of little ones. She made them feel as if they were the most amazing kids out there. And then she would leave the classroom to go out and do incredible organizing here in Baltimore. Each week, after she left, during our lunch and into recess, my students would talk about Ms. Betty and what they had learned that day from Ms. Betty and would come to me to beg to be placed in Ms. Betty’s group the following Thursday. Betty lived in such a way that even the littlest understood that the work that they could contribute was important. I feel honored to have known Betty.
I knew Betty since she was in High School. I was married to her brother for 22 years and witnessed all the Civil Rights events in the 1960’s. I moved to Rochester, NY, after her
brother divorced me, but I am convinced we would have been in more touch if I had lived
closer. We never totally lost touch.
I am happy and excited to say that we in Rochester are involved in the same activist
topics as you in Baltimore: (1) We are calling and writing voters in Georgia about the
Senate runoff races. (2) SURJ is alive and well here (3) I am involved in a Police Reform
group (UCLM = United Church Leadership Ministries.) In fact, I would like to know what you are doing so we could compare notes.
Tanya and Keisha, thank you so much for this! I remember all our Easter family holidays when you were young. You have grown up to be real American beauties.
McKensie looks like what I recall Tanya looking like as a little girl.
Love You,
Aunt Carolyne
The Peoples Power Assembly sends it’s love to all of Betty’s family and closest colleagues. Our best memory of Betty was working with her on the project to stop the building of Walmart in Remington along with our union partners, UFCW.
What stood out was her tireless commitment to getting the job done and to involving the largest number of people and groups in the organizing. She was fair minded but always made sure that everyone stayed on track. We all deeply miss her!
Betty and I met when Tanya was in 6th grade with my daughter. Like, I daresay, a few others, I was in awe and sometimes judged myself for “not being able to keep up” with her activism. Whether one shared activism and organizing or not, she could be a friend. She did bring me into Showing Up for Racial Justice and its Deep Canvassing sub-group not long ago; in fact, I don’t know how I’ll ever canvass again without her!
We sang in the Charm City Labor Chorus together and often went out for a glass of wine, many of us often asking Betty for advice around elections because, as someone said during the memorial service, Betty “knew everything and everyone in Baltimore.”
On her last weekend, she was still thinking about her future in Keisha’s home and the future of the Movement. Betty Robinson PRESENTE!