Feeling Rebloggy
...Soon after arriving in Montgomery, Robinson was verbally attacked by a public bus driver for sitting in the "whites only" section of the bus. When she became the WPC's president the following year, she made desegregating the city's buses one of the organization's top priorities.
The WPC repeatedly complained to the Montgomery city leaders about unfair seating practices and abusive driver conduct. But the group's concerns were dismissed, leading Robinson to begin laying plans for a bus boycott by the city's African American community. Following Rosa Park's arrest in December 1955 for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person, Robinson and a few associates jumped into action. They copied tens of thousands of leaflets and distributed them across the city, calling for a one-day boycott.
Following the overwhelming success of the one-day boycott, Montgomery's black citizens decided to continue the campaign, establishing the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to organize the effort and electing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as the MIA's president.
Walking by Charles Henry Alston. Walking recalls the bus boycotts in the 1950s and anticipated the civil rights marches of the 1960s. The work not only depicts the spirit and conviction of the civil rights protest, it also references the significant role of women and youth in the movement.
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, gift of Sydney Smith Gordon, © Charles Alston Estate. Object number 2007.2
https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/jo-ann-robinson-heroine-montgomery-bus-boycott
No comments:
Post a Comment