David Richmond was born in Greensboro, North Carolina on April 20, 1941. After graduating from Greensboro’s James B. Dudley High School, he entered A&T in the fall of 1959. David majored in business administration and accounting. “We were scared,” Richmond said in 1987. “We tried to encourage each other. We said, ‘I'll do it if you do it.’ But after we got past Belk's and turned the corner, I think everybody was ready to do it. Fear will make you crazy, I think. The adrenalin was pumping but if anybody had said, ‘Boo’ at that counter, I think I would have run.”
He became a counselor–coordinator for the CETA program in Greensboro. His work with the CETA program allowed him to work with disadvantaged youth and adults.
David Richmond died at forty nine years of age in Greensboro on December 7, 1990. Dr. Richmond received the honorary doctorate of humanities degree posthumously from North Carolina A&T State University at his funeral services on December 12, 1990.
On Saturday, February 1, 1997, Dr. Richmond’s unmarked grave was to be memorialized with a monument that read, “David L. Richmond, 1941-1990, civil rights hero; one of the original Greensboro Four; Feb. 1, 1960; Love leads to Freedom.” The monument didn’t arrive in time for the ceremony; however, the dedication took place anyway. David Richmond’s life was celebrated with the play, David Richmond, written in 1998 by Dr. Sam Hay, former A&T faculty member and former executive director of A&T’s Paul Robeson Theatre.