Alabama State University News Dec 03, 2010 ASU Celebrates the Women of the Montgomery Bus Boycott ASU, along with the city of Montgomery and several other companies and organizations paid homage to the women of the Civil Rights Movement during a two-part session held to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. On Dec. 1, 1955, a woman named Rosa Parks was arrested for disorderly conduct after refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white passenger. Parks wasn’t the first to refuse to take the designated “coloreds only” seat in the back, but she was the one who garnered the most support. Several others had done so by Dec. 1, 1955. But it was her act of defiance that led to a 381-day Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Civil Rights Movement. In a two-part session, held in the Ralph David Abernathy Auditorium, Alabama State University, along with Alabama Power, the city of Montgomery, Montgomery Improvement Association and the Southern Youth Leadership Development Institute celebrated the 55th anniversary of the bus boycott and the women who started it. The event provided sev­eral opportunities for attendees to hear from some of the legends of the past and present. Among those speaking included Hon. Vanzetta Penn McPherson, retired United States Magistrate Judge; Charles Varner, research consultant, The National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African-American Culture; Dr. Ralph Bryson, chair, ASU department of English; Dr. Kathy Dunn-Jackson, retired chair, department of Humanities and daughter of the Women Political Council’s founding member, Faustine H. Dunn; Elaine Smith, retired assistant professor of history; Dr. Lewis Baldwin, Vanderbilt University; famed civil rights attorney Fred Gray; Juanita Abernathy, wife of the late Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy; Claudette Colvin, plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle; Mary Louise Smith, plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle; and Butler Browder, son of Aurelia Browder, lead plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle. “So much of our understanding of what occurred in this city in 1955-56 has been distorted to what I call a ‘great man’s approach to history’,” Baldwin said. “When the issue of the bus boycott is raised, many male preachers immediately come to mind. Not the women of Montgomery and certainly not the Women Political Council (WPC). We are here today to say that this one dimensional portrayal of the bus boycott must be seriously challenged and that the stories of the women in the movement must be reclaimed, studied carefully and celebrated.” The WPC was formed in 1946 as a civic organization for African-American professional women in the city of Montgomery, Ala. Most of its members were educators at Alabama State Teachers College. Mary Fair Burks, who was head of Alabama State’s English department, was the group’s first president. Other members included Jo Ann Robinson, Irene West and Uretta Adair. The WPC was the first group to officially call for a boycott of the bus system in Montgomery, which is now known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Claudette Colvin was 15 years old when she was arrested in early March 1955 for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman. “I was arrested by two policemen,” Colvin said. “They dragged me off and handcuffed and put me in the car.” Though others like Claudette Colvin were arrested for refusing to leave their seat, it wasn't until Parks’ arrest in December of 1955 that the WPC and other local organizations decided it was the right time to garner support for a citywide bus boycott. “Claudette gave courage to Aurelia Browder, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King,” attorney Fred Gray said. “We just weren’t ready to move forward when she got arrested.” The night of Parks’ arrest, Jo Ann Robinson called the other WPC leaders, and they agreed that this was the right time for a bus boycott. Robinson stayed up all night mimeographing 17,000 handbills at Alabama State College. She called students and arranged to meet them at elementary and high schools in order to drop the handbills off to be distributed and carried home to parents. The handbill asked blacks to boycott the buses the following Monday in support of Parks. After Parks’ arrest, Gray filed a lawsuit (Browder v. Gayle) challenging Alabama’s segregation laws. In November 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregated seating on buses unconstitutional. The 55th anniversary celebrations will conclude Monday, Dec. 6, with the annual Ralph D. Abernathy Lecture Series. Actor, singer and social activist Harry Belafonte will be the guest speaker. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Program Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 404.592.4820 1438 West Peachtree Street NW Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.