When Montgomery Walked…
…and broke the back of Jim Crow
Today’s Democratic party is still stumbling from extensive losses in the 2024 election, and many of us are still in a state of horrific disbelief. Not only because Trump is occupying and defiling the Oval Office again, but also because his party now controls all three branches of government. Heaven help us all. As history has shown us, this is a time for regrouping, organizing and unifying the Democratic party. But compared to the Democratic party and leaders of the past, with precious few exceptions, the majority of this generation of Democrats seem ineffective and rudderless. And in my view, as one who lived through those times, genuinely useful lessons can be learned from past brave and courageous Americans and Civil Rights Leaders of the ’50s and ‘60s.
Almost seventy years ago, in 20th Century America, Black people in Southern states lived under legalized racial terrorism. I was one of them. Living under the foreboding and ominous shadow of what was then known as “Jim Crow” laws in Montgomery Alabama. Actual laws that allowed White supremacy to reign supreme and forced “colored people/Negroes” to endure constant marginalization and oppression — the continuing legacy of Slavery, this country’s greatest shame.
But this nation’s self-inflicted wound is not of our making. The mere knowledge that our African ancestors were kidnapped, shackled, and herded as human cargo en route to a lifetime of bondage and servitude is a fact that informs the very essence of our beings. Most African Americans of a certain age have experienced racism on some level at some point in their lives. Those of us over 40 who share the additional common bond of being born South of the Mason-Dixon line have felt the sting of white hatred even as children. From my own life experience in Montgomery, I feel that I can speak with some authority on the subject of racism and its impact, not only during my formative years but for much of my adult life as well. For even though my family later joined in the Great Migration and moved North to Detroit, we spent summer vacations in Montgomery and those times and images have remained embedded in me.
Like most people, I was born into a loving family with two parents and a host of other relatives who doted on me and attended to my every need. As a little girl, I was sheltered from the evil forces just outside of the verdant enclave that was our home on the outskirts of Montgomery. However, outside of the restricted and narrow landscape that my early childhood encompassed, I saw that black people were disrespected, marginalized and treated as inferior.
Segregation was the law of the land and for Negroes the ominous shadow of Jim Crow was omnipresent.
But even in the face of unrelenting racial oppression my four siblings and I were blessed with loving but demanding parents who protected us and embedded in us a sense of responsibility and strident goals of self-reliance and self-discipline. We were constantly assured that we were just as good, and certainly not less than any other human being of God’s creation and that racial prejudice was simply traditional ignorance. This long tradition resulted in a racial caste system that spawned unspeakably violent acts against black people, and in one instance spurred the brutal torture and murder of a 14-year-old black boy named Emmett Till in the town of Money, Mississippi on August 28, 1955.
When the story exploded in national headlines it caused immediate nationwide outrage. The news coverage in print, television, and radio brought ugly images into homes across the country, making average citizens eye-witnesses to crimes against humanity, and shaming America before the world. In Southern states, however, these ongoing injustices resulted in black people becoming fed up, thereby galvanizing communities into action and creating the spark that ignited the Civil Rights Movement. Less than four months after the horror of the Emmett Till murder, the arrest of Mrs. Rosa Parks on board a Montgomery city bus presented the ideal case with which to press forward in challenging the scourge of segregation, beginning with the city’s segregated bus lines.
Mrs. Parks and my mother were good friends for many years and had been classmates at Miss White’s School for Girls when they were girls. Mrs. Parks was an expert and sought-after seamstress in the high fashion- women’s couture area of the Montgomery Fair department store in downtown Montgomery, where she did alterations. However, in those days, in this same department where she was employed, Negroes were not allowed entry into fitting rooms to try on clothing. Much has been written about what happened on that Cleveland Avenue bus that evening when she was making her way home from work. And over the years, Mrs. Parks herself has dismissed the “quiet seamstress” characterization applied to her. But let it suffice to say that the black citizens of Montgomery had had enough of the inhumane treatment they had long endured on city busses, and the city-wide mood dictated that it was time to act. The news of Mrs. Parks’ arrest was a shock to everyone, but it was also the spark that ignited the Civil Rights Movement.
Although several other women had been arrested previously for refusing to surrender their seats to White passengers, by the time of Mrs. Parks’ encounter with the bus driver, the time was ripe to take action and she presented as the perfect heroine. Immediately, two local Negro organizations, the (WPC) Women’s Political Council and the (MIA) Montgomery Improvement Association joined forces and organized a strategy with which to move forward in planning a boycott of the city’s buses. The Black citizens of Montgomery united full force, mounting a 13-month, city-wide mass protest that crippled one of the previous Jim Crow strongholds and ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling segregation on public buses unconstitutional. National media coverage brought Mrs. Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. to the world stage, and focused international attention on the activities in Montgomery.
Mrs. JoAnn Gibson Robinson’s memoir, edited and with a foreword by David J. Garrow, 1987 Pulitzer Prize winner for Biography for Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
For over a year, Black Montgomery stood tall, embraced the cause and walked and carpooled as half-empty city buses limped along, devoid of black presence. I have always been tremendously proud of the fact that during extremely turbulent and dangerous times, the black citizenry of my hometown, many of them members of my family, courageously took action that actually changed the course of history. By galvanizing and standing tall in the face of unrelenting racial animus and diversity, they faced down age-old oppression and demanded their rights. Subsequently, the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott was successful and, achieved all of their demands. The people of Montgomery, Alabama stood together and dismantled Jim Crow with far fewer resources than are available to us today.
Inspiration from those who came before us
“Let us fight passionately and unrelentingly for the goals of justice and peace…But let’s be sure that our hands are clean in the struggle. Let us not fight with violence and falsehoods and hate and malice…But always fight with love so that when the day comes when the walls of segregation come tumbling down in Montgomery, we can live side by side with people as their brothers and sisters.” — ~ Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
For 361 days the Negro citizens of Montgomery were on the front lines of one of the greatest social movements of all time that would change the course of this nation’s history. December 5, 1955: On a cold and rainy Monday morning, the Negro citizens of Montgomery rose with pride and dignity and determination and began what would become their historic walk to freedom.
