Dr. Richlyn Goddard Papers

Dr. Richlyn Goddard Papers

Dr. Richlyn Faye Goddard was born and raised in Atlantic City and is the daughter of a Philippine war-bride and the eldest son of first-generation immigrants from Barbados, in the British West Indies. Her two children, Tishalla and Orkeem Davis have given her 6 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren. After graduating from ACHS in 1966, she studied at Bronx Community College, F.I.T. (Fashion Institute of Technology) and Atlantic Community College. She considers herself a "late bloomer" when she earned a B.A. in Sociology/Anthropology in 1990 from Stockton State College. In 1988 while working part-time as a library aide at the Atlantic City Free Public Library, she read the dissertation of the late-Dr. Herbert Foster and was inspired to continue to build upon his historical study on Atlantic City's African American community. After 13 years of conducting intensive research and writing, her dissertation entitled, `Three Months to Hurry & Nine Months to Worry': Resort Life for African Americans in Atlantic City, NJ (1850-1940) was completed at Howard University in 2001. Dr. Goddard taught in their History Dept. until 2006 and returned to New Jersey teaching at Rowan in Glassboro and The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) in Ewing. She retired this year from Stockton where she loved teaching the history of the Civil Rights Movement, since she lived it.