Making a Difference in the U.S.A.

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Success Is the Best Revenge

Barbara Robinson has had more than her share of bad fortune: An abusive stepfather, an alcoholic mother, grinding poverty, sexual molestation and rape, homelessness, and hateful racial discrimination.

In her youth, she recalls, people told her she would never amount to anything. But she defied the odds and succeeded in government, business, and — most recently — in politics.

Above, Barbara A. Robinson. (Courtesy Barbara A. Robinson)Below, logo for Self Pride, inc, an NGO founded by Barbara A. Robinson.

"I had so much to prove — that I was as good as the next person," Robinson said. "Success is the best revenge you can get on anybody."

That success, however, did not come easily. Despite a hellish childhood in segregated Georgia, she managed to complete high school with honors. A grant allowed her to escape her dysfunctional home and go to college in Baltimore, Maryland. But she dropped out after the first semester, pregnant with the first of five children she would have with the man who would be her husband for 46 years. Nonetheless, she was determined to get an education.

It took her 18 years to get her Bachelor's degree. She would work for tuition money, attend school until the money ran out, and return to work to earn more tuition money. Her husband, who had never completed high school, felt threatened by her ambitions.

"Once he kicked down the door to the bedroom so he could tear up my schoolbooks," Robinson recalls. Finally she told him: "I'm going to graduate with or without you. … So whatever you do to make me drop out of college, it's not going to work." He relented and eventually became proud of her accomplishments.

But living in low-income public housing did not provide much in the way of a social support system. The "street people" who were her immediate associates scorned her for her efforts to improve herself. And she found she had little in common with her fellow students, who had come from better circumstances.

"I was by myself," Robinson says. "I had to create a place for my- self. And I did."

Robinson went on to get her Mas- ter's degree in criminal justice administration. She became the first woman and the first African American in the history of the Maryland court system to hold positions as chief administrator of the Traffic Division and deputy administrator of the District Court and the Supreme Bench, which later became known as the Circuit Court.

In 1985, she founded her own company – Strategies, Tactics, and Results Associates, Incorporated. Known as STAR, the company is now widely recognized for its work in human resources development and training. Five years later she founded SelfPride, Incorporated, a nonprofit organization that provides community-based residential facilities and 24-hour care to people with developmental disabilities, as well as employment opportunities for people who were social welfare recipients.

Despite all her accomplishments, Robinson remained dissatisfied with what she saw as systemic racism that hindered minority entrepreneurs. So she decided to change things "from the inside" by running for a seat in the House of Delegates in the Maryland General Assembly.

Robinson competed against 19 people running for the three open seats representing her district. "They were younger than me and had much more experience in politics," she says of the other candidates. In one of her fi rst public appearances with the challengers, she notes: "I started getting scared, my voice shaking." But she told herself: "The old Barbara Robinson the fighter is going up there. … I'm in it to win it."

At an age when most women settle down to play with their grandchildren, Robinson enlisted her five grandchildren

and their parents to work in her campaign. "I got my friends to help me," she says. "I had 30 volunteers that worked like 300." She funded her campaign with her own money. She knocked on doors in rough neighborhoods other candidates declined to visit.

And she won.

"Nobody endorsed me," Robinson, a Democrat representing District 40, Baltimore City, says. "I don't owe any allegiance to any special interest groups. … I represent the voters. And that's a great, great feeling."

Completing her first year of a four-year term, Robinson says: "My primary goals are to see that small businesses get their fair share of the market. To see that women-owned businesses get their fair share of the market. To see that those (minorities) who are in business not only get their fair share of the market, but have the same advantages that non-minorities have to expand."

A member of what she describes as the "over-60 wisdom group," Robinson acknowledges with pride: "I am 69-years-old, and I ain't finished yet."

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