Boston Sun: Children’s Services of Roxbury Founders Receive Drum Major Award

Children’s Services of Roxbury (CSR) founders the Rev. Richard Richardson and Jestina Richardson received the Drum Major Award at the 54th Annual Martin Luther King Memorial Breakfast on Jan. 15 for their extraordinary contributions to justice, diversity and inclusion efforts in Boston. The Richardsons established CSR 50 years ago with the goal of providing resources that increase the social and economic health of families and children of color, and the organization has grown to be one of the largest Black-run nonprofits in Massachusetts.  

The longest-running celebration of its kind in the United States, the Boston MLK Breakfast is co-hosted annually by St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church and Union United Methodist Church. Each year, the MLK Breakfast Committee bestows the Drum Major Award to individuals and community organizations that exemplify the qualities of instinct of service and care for community described by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his 1968 “drum major” sermon.

The Richardsons were honored alongside Dorchester native Greg Almeida, founder of Global View Communications, a leading diversity and inclusion business strategy firm.