Misplaced Pages

#788211

88-607: Inside the museum, there are interactive activities and even a reenactment of what happened on the bus as if you were outside the bus watching. There are artifacts in the museum from the Montgomery Bus Boycott . This museum is significant to Montgomery because it exhibits events that had occurred during the civil rights era in Alabama . one of the reasons to build the museum was due to the bus boycott that occurred in Montgomery. It

176-577: A black woman, was raped by six white men in Abbeville, Alabama . After investigating her case, Rosa Parks —along with E. D. Nixon , Rufus A. Lewis , and E. G. Jackson—organized support for Taylor in Montgomery. They mobilized nationwide support from labor unions, African-American organizations, and women's groups to form the Alabama Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor . Although they did not succeed in obtaining justice in court for Taylor,

264-466: A fare equal to the cost to ride the bus, in support of the boycott. When word of this reached city officials on December 8, the order went out to fine any cab driver who charged a rider less than 45 cents. In addition to using private motor vehicles , some people used non-motorized means to get around, such as cycling, walking, or even riding mules or driving horse-drawn buggies. Some people also hitchhiked. During rush hours, sidewalks were often crowded. As

352-404: A first-come, first-served basis, with black people seated in the back half and white people seated in the front half, and 3) black people would be employed as bus operators on routes predominately taken by black people. This demand was a compromise for the leaders of the boycott, who believed that the city of Montgomery would be more likely to accept it rather than a demand for full integration of

440-459: A flyer throughout Montgomery's black community that read as follows: Another woman has been arrested and thrown in jail because she refused to get up out of her seat on the bus for a white person to sit down. It is the second time since the Claudette Colvin case that a Negro woman has been arrested for the same thing. This has to be stopped. Negroes have rights too, for if Negroes did not ride

528-671: A group of Klansmen (who would later be charged for the bombings) lynched a black man, Willie Edwards , on the pretext that he was dating a white woman. The city's elite moved to strengthen segregation in other areas, and in March 1957 passed an ordinance making it "unlawful for white and colored persons to play together, or, in company with each other ... in any game of cards, dice, dominoes, checkers, pool, billiards, softball, basketball, baseball, football, golf, track, and at swimming pools, beaches, lakes or ponds or any other game or games or athletic contests, either indoors or outdoors." Later in

616-499: A group of 16 to 18 people gathered at the Mt. Zion Church to discuss boycott strategies. At that time Rosa Parks was introduced but not asked to speak, despite a standing ovation and calls from the crowd for her to speak; she asked someone if she should say something, but they replied, "Why, you've said enough." A citywide boycott of public transit was proposed, with three demands: 1) courteous treatment by bus operators, 2) passengers seated on

704-539: A meeting of local ministers at Martin Luther King Jr.'s church. Though Nixon could not attend the meeting because of his work schedule, he arranged that no election of a leader for the proposed boycott would take place until his return. When he returned, he caucused with Ralph Abernathy and Rev. E.N. French to name the association to lead the boycott to the city (they selected the " Montgomery Improvement Association ", "MIA"), and they selected King (Nixon's choice) to lead

792-500: A new row for white people could be created; it was illegal for white and black people to sit next to each other. When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a white person, she was sitting in the first row of the middle section. Often when boarding the buses, black people were required to pay at the front, get off, and reenter the bus through a separate door at the back. Occasionally, bus drivers would drive away before black passengers were able to reboard. National City Lines owned

880-627: A pregnant woman was shot in both legs. On January 10, 1957, bombs destroyed five black churches and the home of Reverend Robert S. Graetz , one of the few white Montgomerians who had publicly sided with the MIA. The city suspended bus service for several weeks on account of the violence. According to legal historian Randall Kennedy , "When the violence subsided and service was restored, many black Montgomerians enjoyed their newly recognized right only abstractly ... In practically every other setting, Montgomery remained overwhelmingly segregated ..." On January 23,

968-478: A rising leader. White backlash against the court victory was quick, brutal, and, in the short term, effective. Two days after the inauguration of desegregated seating, someone fired a shotgun through the front door of Martin Luther King's home. A day later, on Christmas Eve, white men attacked a black teenager as she exited a bus. Four days after that, two buses were fired upon by snipers. In one sniper incident,

SECTION 10

#1733092373789

1056-524: A suffragist and founder of the National Association of Colored Women ; Charlotte Hawkins Brown , a popular clubwoman and respected educator; Ira De A. Reid, a sociologist and assistant director of the newly formed Southern Regional Council ; John Sengstacke , the publisher of the Chicago Defender ; Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes of Harlem Renaissance fame; Lillian Smith , author of

1144-399: A system of carpools, with car owners volunteering their vehicles or themselves driving people to various destinations. Some white housewives also drove their black domestic servants to work. When the city pressured local insurance companies to stop insuring cars used in the carpools, the boycott leaders arranged policies at Lloyd's of London . Black taxi drivers charged ten cents per ride,

1232-582: A train car reserved for white passengers in Lynn, Massachusetts; when the conductor ordered them to leave the car, they refused. Following the action, widespread organizing led Congress to approve the Civil Rights Act of 1875 which granted equal rights to Black citizens in public accommodations. In 1883 the Supreme Court overturned this victory, declaring it unconstitutional. On September 3, 1944, Recy Taylor ,

1320-462: Is with the movement. Go home with this glowing faith and this radiant assurance. King and 88 other boycott leaders and carpool drivers were indicted for conspiring to interfere with a business under a 1921 ordinance. Rather than wait to be arrested, they turned themselves in as an act of defiance. King was ordered to pay a $ 500 fine or serve 386 days in jail. He ended up spending two weeks in jail. The move backfired by bringing national attention to

1408-411: The Chicago Defender , which had a national African-American audience, ran a front-page article titled "Victim of White Alabama Rapists", which profiled Taylor and the case. Parks took the case back to Montgomery where she started to form support for Taylor with the assistance of E.D. Nixon , Rufas A. Lewis, and E.G. Jackson, all influential men in the Montgomery community. Parks and her allies formed

1496-618: The Commerce Clause . That victory, however, overturned state segregation laws only insofar as they applied to travel in interstate commerce, such as interstate bus travel, and Southern bus companies immediately circumvented the Morgan ruling by instituting their own Jim Crow regulations . Further incidents continued to take place in Montgomery, including the arrest of Lillie Mae Bradford for disorderly conduct in May 1951 for allegedly refusing to leave

1584-521: The Dexter Avenue Baptist Church only four days before Parks's arrest. Parks was in the audience and later said that Emmett Till was on her mind when she refused to give up her seat. The MIA's demand for a fixed dividing line was to be supplemented by a requirement that all bus passengers receive courteous treatment by bus operators, be seated on a first-come, first-served basis, and that Black people be employed as bus drivers. The proposal

1672-519: The Interstate Commerce Act . However, neither the Supreme Court's Morgan ruling nor the ICC's Keys ruling addressed the matter of Jim Crow travel within the individual states. Under the system of segregation used on Montgomery buses, the ten front seats were reserved for white people at all times. The ten back seats were supposed to be reserved for black people at all times. The middle section of

1760-493: The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), in response to a complaint filed by Women's Army Corps Private Sarah Keys, closed the legal loophole left by the Morgan ruling in a landmark case known as Keys v. Carolina Coach Co. . The ICC prohibited individual carriers from imposing their own segregation rules on interstate travelers, declaring that to do so was a violation of the anti-discrimination provision of

1848-518: The United States Supreme Court . On November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court upheld the district court's ruling. The bus boycott officially ended on December 20, 1956, after 382 days. The Montgomery bus boycott resounded far beyond the desegregation of public buses. It stimulated activism and participation from the South in the national Civil Rights Movement and gave King national attention as

SECTION 20

#1733092373789

1936-760: The Venice Biennale and the New York Film Festival , and was screened across the U.S. in 2018. The film, which won the Venice Biennale's Human Rights Night Award, focused on Taylor and her family recounting their struggle for justice, and sought to expose a context of systemic racism that fostered the crime and coverup, and persists today. In 2018, Oprah Winfrey , spoke of Taylor saying, "They threatened to kill her if she ever told anyone ... Recy Taylor died 10 days ago. . .for too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dared speak their truth to

2024-460: The "manipulation of interracial rape to justify violence against black men." After various other newspaper publications and widespread knowledge of the attack, black activists started writing to the Governor of Alabama, Chauncey Sparks . Sparks had promised during his election campaign to, "keep the federal government's nose out of Alabama business", so after numerous attacks, including comparisons of

2112-489: The 2018 State of the Union , where Taylor's granddaughter, Mary Joyce Owens, was a guest. Recy Corbitt was born on December 31, 1919, in rural Alabama, where her family were farmworkers doing sharecropping . At 17, her mother died and she cared for her six siblings. She continued to work in sharecropping and by the time she was 24 in 1944, she had married Willie Guy Taylor and they had a young daughter, Joyce Lee. Recy Taylor

2200-588: The African-American community and ended up providing an organizational spark in the civil rights movement . At the 2018 Golden Globe Awards , while accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award , Oprah Winfrey discussed and brought awareness to Taylor's story, a few weeks after her death and in light of the MeToo movement . The Congressional Black Caucus led Democratic Caucus members in wearing red "Recy" pins while attending

2288-529: The Alabama Committee for Equal Justice for Taylor, "with support from national labor unions, African-American organizations, and women's groups." The group recruited supporters across the entire country and by the spring of 1945 they had organized what the Chicago Defender called the "strongest campaign for equal justice to be seen in a decade." The grand jury hearing took place on October 3–4, 1944, with an all-white, all-male jury. However, none of

2376-821: The Dark End of the Street: ;Black Women, Rape, and Resistance—a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power in 2011 led to formal apologies from the Alabama Legislature to Taylor on behalf of the state "for its failure to prosecute her attackers." A joint resolution was adopted by the Alabama legislature on April 21, 2011, stating: BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA, BOTH HOUSES THEREOF CONCURRING, That we acknowledge

2464-511: The Health Officer of Henry County for venereal disease." Later, other white men from Abbeville identified Taylor as an "upstanding, respectable woman who abided by the town's racial and sexual mores". Investigators interviewed the rapists, and four of the seven men "admitted to having intercourse with Taylor, but argued that she was essentially a prostitute and willing participant." Others, including Herbert Lovett, denied knowing anything about

2552-628: The Henry County's police to the Nazis , "Governor Sparks reluctantly agreed to launch an investigation." Rosa Parks, in her instrumental work to bring justice for Taylor, spearheaded the creation of the " Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor " (CEJRT). It quickly gathered national support, with local chapters springing up across the United States. The group had an illustrious membership; "luminaries included W.E.B. Du Bois ; Mary Church Terrell ,

2640-613: The Montgomery Bus Line at the time of the Montgomery bus boycott. Under the leadership of Walter Reuther , the United Auto Workers donated almost $ 5,000 (equivalent to $ 57,000 in 2023) to the boycott's organizing committee. Rosa Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was a seamstress by profession; she was also the secretary for the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP . Twelve years before her history-making arrest, Parks

2728-531: The Montgomery City Bus to a white man. The museum and library were opened on the anniversary of the day she refused to give up her seat: December 1. For the 65th anniversary of the boycott, two new traveling exhibitions were added. "The Women of the Movement" tells the stories of Jo Ann Robinson , Aurelia Browder , Claudette Colvin , Mary Louise Smith and Lucille Times . "The Legacy of Rosa Parks" includes

Rosa Parks Museum - Misplaced Pages Continue

2816-470: The Montgomery bus boycott when the Supreme Court ruled on it in December 1956. In August 1955, four months before Parks's refusal to give up a seat on the bus that led to the Montgomery bus boycott, a 14-year-old African American from Chicago named Emmett Till was murdered by two white men, John W. Milam and Roy Bryant. The picture of his brutally beaten body in the open-casket funeral that his mother requested

2904-444: The South to protect black women, such as Recy Taylor , from racial violence. The boycott also took place within a larger statewide and national movement for civil rights, including court cases such as Morgan v. Virginia , the earlier Baton Rouge bus boycott , and the arrest of Claudette Colvin , among others, for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus. In 1841 Frederick Douglass and his friend James N. Buffum entered

2992-570: The Taylor case was the first instance of a nationwide civil rights protest, and it laid the groundwork for the Montgomery bus boycott. In 1955, Parks completed a course in "Race Relations" at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee, where nonviolent civil disobedience had been discussed as a tactic. On December 1, 1955, Parks was sitting in the foremost row in which black people could sit (in

3080-606: The apologies on Mother's Day in 2011, when she visited Rock Hill Holiness Church in Abbeville, the very church where she worshipped the night of the crime. "I felt good," she said. "That was a good day to present it to me. I wasn't expecting that." In 2011, Taylor visited the White House and attended a forum on Rosa Parks at the National Press Club . A 2017 documentary by Nancy Buirski , The Rape of Recy Taylor , premiered at

3168-490: The arrest of 15-year-old Claudette Colvin , a student at Booker T. Washington High School in Montgomery. On March 2, 1955, Colvin was handcuffed, arrested, and forcibly removed from a public bus when she refused to give up her seat to a white man. At the time, Colvin was an active member in the NAACP Youth Council , where Rosa Parks was an advisor. Colvin's legal case formed the core of Browder v. Gayle , which ended

3256-459: The assailants had been arrested, which meant that the only witnesses were Taylor's black friends and family. Taylor's family could not identify the names of the assailants, and since Sheriff Gamble "never arranged a police line-up, Taylor could not identify her attackers in court". Also, the $ 250 bond Gamble placed Wilson and his accomplices under "were issued late in the afternoon, the day after Taylor's hearing". After five minutes of deliberation,

3344-406: The attack. However, one of the assailants, Joe Culpepper, admitted that he and the other rapists were out looking for a woman the night of the attack, that Lovett got out of the car with a gun and spoke to Taylor, that Taylor was forced into the car and later forced out of the car and made to undress at gunpoint, was raped and later blindfolded and left on the side of the road. Culpepper's retelling of

3432-488: The back of the bus, and were frequently ordered to surrender their seats to white people even though black passengers made up 75% of the bus system's riders. Many bus drivers treated their black passengers poorly beyond the law: African-Americans were assaulted, shortchanged , and left stranded after paying their fares. The year before the bus boycott began, the Supreme Court and Warren Court decided unanimously, in

3520-443: The behalf of Taylor. Gamble falsely claimed that he started an investigation of his own immediately after the attack. He also claimed that he had arrested all of the men involved in the rape two days after the assault, and that he had placed Hugo Wilson, the man identified as being the owner of the car, under a $ 500 bond. He also accused Taylor of being "nothing but a whore around Abbeville" and that she had been "treated for some time by

3608-470: The boycott. Nixon wanted King to lead the boycott because the young minister was new to Montgomery and the city fathers had not had time to intimidate him. At a subsequent, larger meeting of ministers, Nixon's agenda was threatened by the clergymen's reluctance to support the campaign. Nixon was indignant, pointing out that their poor congregations worked to put money into the collection plates so these ministers could live well, and when those congregations needed

Rosa Parks Museum - Misplaced Pages Continue

3696-424: The bus consisted of sixteen unreserved seats for white and black people on a segregated basis. White people filled the middle seats from the front to back, and black people filled seats from the back to front until the bus was full. If other black people boarded the bus, they were required to stand. If another white person boarded the bus, then everyone in the black row nearest the front had to get up and stand so that

3784-401: The bus driver authority to assign seats. Found guilty on December 5, Parks was fined $ 10 plus a court cost of $ 4 (combined total equivalent to $ 159 in 2023), and she appealed. This movement also sparked riots leading up to the 1956 Sugar Bowl . Some action against segregation had been in the works for some time before Parks' arrest, under the leadership of E. D. Nixon , president of

3872-499: The buses received few, if any, passengers, their officials asked the City Commission to allow stopping service to black communities. Across the nation, black churches raised money to support the boycott and collected new and slightly used shoes to replace the tattered footwear of Montgomery's black citizens, many of whom walked everywhere rather than ride the buses and submit to Jim Crow laws . In response, opposing whites swelled

3960-464: The buses to work, to town, to school, or anywhere on Monday. You can afford to stay out of school for one day if you have no other way to go except by bus. You can also afford to stay out of town for one day. If you work, take a cab, or walk. But please, children and grown-ups, don't ride the bus at all on Monday. Please stay off all buses Monday. The next morning there was a meeting led by the new Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) head, King, where

4048-412: The buses, they could not operate. Three-fourths of the riders are Negro, yet we are arrested, or have to stand over empty seats. If we do not do something to stop these arrests, they will continue. The next time it may be you, or your daughter, or mother. This woman's case will come up on Monday. We are, therefore, asking every Negro to stay off the buses Monday in protest of the arrest and trial. Don't ride

4136-577: The buses. In this respect, the MIA leaders followed the pattern of 1950s boycott campaigns in the Deep South , including the successful boycott a few years earlier of service stations in Mississippi for refusing to provide restrooms for Black people. The organizer of that campaign, T. R. M. Howard of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership , had spoken on the lynching of Emmett Till as King's guest at

4224-538: The car at gunpoint and proceeded to drive her to a patch of trees on the side of the road. They forced her to remove her clothes saying "Get them rags off, or I'll kill you and leave you down here in the woods." After she was forcibly undressed, Taylor begged to return home to her family, including her husband and an infant child. The assailants ignored her requests, all removed their clothes, and watched as Lovett ordered Taylor to lie down and for her to "act just like you do with your husband or I'll cut your damn throat." She

4312-538: The case of Brown v. Board of Education , that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. The reaction by the white population of the Deep South was "noisy and stubborn". Discontented white southerners joined the White Citizens' Council as a result of the decision. Although it is often framed as the start of the civil rights movement , the boycott occurred at the end of many black communities' struggles in

4400-449: The clergy to stand up for them, those comfortable ministers refused to do so. Nixon threatened to reveal the ministers' cowardice to the black community, and King spoke up, denying he was afraid to support the boycott. King agreed to lead the MIA, and Nixon was elected its treasurer. On the night of Parks' arrest, the Women's Political Council , led by Jo Ann Robinson , printed and circulated

4488-648: The controversial interracial love story Strange Fruit ; and Broadway impresario Oscar Hammerstein II ." The "illustrious" group drew the attention of the FBI , as the House Un-American Activities Committee argued that the group was simply a cover for the Communist Party . After Governor Sparks launched an investigation, Sheriff Gamble was interviewed again about the measures he took to ensure justice on

SECTION 50

#1733092373789

4576-616: The driver of the car, the police did not call in any of the men Wilson named as assailants, and Wilson was fined $ 250 (equivalent to $ 4,330 in 2023). The black community of Abbeville was outraged at the actions taken by the police, and the event was reported to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter in Montgomery, Alabama . The NAACP sent down their best investigator and activist against sexual assaults on black women, Rosa Parks . In early October,

4664-458: The effort have been described by some as essential to the success of the bus boycott. Pressure increased across the country. The related civil suit was heard in federal district court and, on June 5, 1956, the court ruled in Browder v. Gayle (1956) that Alabama's racial segregation laws for buses were unconstitutional. As the state appealed the decision, the boycott continued. The case moved on to

4752-399: The federal ruling Browder v. Gayle took effect, and led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws that segregated buses were unconstitutional. Before the bus boycott, Jim Crow laws mandated the racial segregation of the Montgomery Bus Line. As a result of this segregation, African Americans were not hired as drivers, were forced to ride in

4840-491: The front sections of city buses if there were no white passengers present, but it still required African Americans to enter from the rear rather than the front of the buses. However, the ordinance was largely unenforced by the city bus drivers. The drivers later went on strike after city authorities refused to arrest Rev. T. J. Jemison for sitting in a front row. Four days after the strike began, Louisiana Attorney General and former Baton Rouge mayor Fred S. LeBlanc declared

4928-403: The jury dismissed the case. The only way it could be re-opened would be through an indictment from a second grand jury. In the months following the trial, Taylor received multiple death threats , and her home was firebombed . Taylor, along with her husband and child, moved into the family home, where her father and siblings would help protect Taylor from other death threats. Her entire family

5016-698: The lack of prosecution for crimes committed against Recy Taylor by the government of the State of Alabama, that we declare such failure to act was, and is, morally abhorrent and repugnant, and that we do hereby express profound regret for the role played by the government of the State of Alabama in failing to prosecute the crimes. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That we express our deepest sympathies and solemn regrets to Recy Taylor and her family and friends. State Representative Dexter Grimsley , along with Abbeville Mayor Ryan Blalock and Henry County Probate Judge JoAnn Smith, also apologized to Taylor for her treatment. Taylor received

5104-503: The local NAACP chapter and a member of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters . Nixon intended that her arrest be a test case to allow Montgomery's black citizens to challenge segregation on the city's public buses. With this goal, community leaders had been waiting for the right person to be arrested, a person who would anger the black community into action, who would agree to test the segregation laws in court, and who, most importantly,

5192-421: The men's confessions to authorities, two grand juries subsequently declined to indict the men; no charges were ever brought against her assailants. In 2011, the Alabama Legislature officially apologized on behalf of the state "for its failure to prosecute her attackers." Taylor's rape, refusal to remain silent, and the subsequent court cases were among the early instances of nationwide protest and activism among

5280-400: The middle section). When a white man boarded the bus, the bus driver told everyone in her row to move back. At that moment, Parks realized that she was again on a bus driven by Blake. While all of the other black people in her row complied, Parks refused, and she was arrested for failing to obey the driver's seat assignments, as city ordinances did not explicitly mandate segregation but did give

5368-427: The mobilization of the black community in Alabama set up social and political networks that enabled the success of the Montgomery bus boycott a decade later. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had accepted and litigated other cases, including that of Irene Morgan in 1946, which resulted in a victory in the Supreme Court on the grounds that segregated interstate bus lines violated

SECTION 60

#1733092373789

5456-480: The museum history and the relevance of nonviolent disobedience today. 32°22′36″N 86°18′40″W  /  32.37672°N 86.31111°W  / 32.37672; -86.31111 Montgomery bus boycott WPC member MIA members City Commission National City Lines Montgomery City Lines City of Birmingham City of Montgomery City of Selma City of Tuscaloosa City of Tuskegee Other localities The Montgomery bus boycott

5544-511: The old custom of riding in the back of the bus." The National Memorial for Peace and Justice contains, among other things, a sculpture "dedicated to the women who sustained the Montgomery Bus Boycott", by Dana King , to help illustrate the civil rights period. The memorial opened in downtown Montgomery, Alabama on April 26, 2018. Recy Taylor Recy Taylor (née Corbitt ; December 31, 1919 – December 28, 2017)

5632-411: The ordinance unconstitutional under Louisiana state law. This led Rev. Jemison to organize what historians believe to be the first bus boycott of the civil rights movement. The boycott ended after eight days when an agreement was reached to only retain the first two front and back rows as racially reserved seating. Black activists had begun to build a case to challenge state bus segregation laws around

5720-451: The outcome, the case was considered a major victory for the formation of the civil rights movement because of the successful mobilization of activists across the nation: "The Recy Taylor case brought the building blocks of the Montgomery bus boycott together a decade [before the boycott]." Taylor lived in Abbeville with her family for two decades after the attack. She said that during those years she lived "in fear, and many white people in

5808-462: The power of those men ... And I just hope — I just hope that Recy Taylor died knowing that her truth ... goes marching on." In discussing the historical context, Danielle McGuire noted, "Decades before the women's movement, decades before there were speak-outs or anyone saying ' me too ,' Recy Taylor testified about her assault to people who could very easily have killed her — who tried to kill her." In describing Taylor later in life, McGuire said, "She

5896-518: The protest would continue. Given twenty minutes notice, King gave a speech asking for a bus boycott and attendees enthusiastically agreed. Starting December 7, J Edgar Hoover's FBI noted the "agitation among negroes" and tried to find "derogatory information" about King. The boycott proved extremely effective, with enough riders lost to the city transit system to cause serious economic distress. Martin Luther King later wrote, "[a] miracle had taken place." Instead of riding buses, boycotters organized

5984-561: The protest. King commented on the arrest by saying: "I was proud of my crime. It was the crime of joining my people in a nonviolent protest against injustice." Also important during the bus boycott were grassroots activist groups that helped to catalyze both fund-raising and morale. Groups such as the Club from Nowhere helped to sustain the boycott by finding new ways of raising money and offering support to boycott participants. Many members of these organizations were women and their contributions to

6072-608: The ranks of the White Citizens' Council , the membership of which doubled during the course of the boycott. The councils sometimes resorted to violence: King's and Abernathy's houses were firebombed , as were four black Baptist churches. Boycotters were often physically attacked. After the attack at King's house, he gave a speech to the 300 angry African Americans who had gathered outside. He said: If you have weapons, take them home; if you do not have them, please do not seek to get them. We cannot solve this problem through retaliatory violence. We must meet violence with nonviolence. Remember

6160-865: The south and within black communities. These organizations and others came together to defend Taylor and demand punishment for her attackers as well as Taylor's safety. The activists convened at the Negro Masonic Temple in Birmingham, Alabama , where members of the Montgomery and Birmingham NAACP, editors and reporters from the Alabama Tribune and Birmingham World , and members of the Southern Negro Youth Congress , or SNYC, amongst others coordinated efforts to bring justice for Recy Taylor. SNYC members, together with Rosa Parks and other primarily female activists helped spread Recy Taylor's story all

6248-428: The story was directly in line with Taylor's original account. However, even with this information including several of the alleged assailants testimonies, the attorney general "failed to convince the jurors of Henry County that there was enough evidence to indict the seven suspects when he presented Taylor's case on February 14, 1945." The second all-white male jury refused to issue any indictments. The black community

6336-468: The town continued to treat her badly, even after her attackers left." She eventually moved to Florida where she worked picking oranges. She later separated from her husband. Their only child died in an automobile accident in 1967. Taylor lived for many years in Winter Haven, Florida , until her family brought her back to Abbeville, due to failing health. The publication of Danielle L. McGuire's book At

6424-552: The way up the coast to Harlem, New York . Stories of Taylor's assault were printed in the Pittsburgh Courier making the "rape of Recy Taylor a southern injustice" which "immediately sparked nation-wide interest." This led to a publication in the New York Daily News titled "Alabama Authorities Ignore White Gang's Rape of Negro Mother" and attacked the long lasting segregation and defense of white womanhood as well as

6512-468: The white passengers' section until the bus driver amended an incorrect charge on her transfer ticket. On February 25, 1953, the Baton Rouge , Louisiana , city-parish council passed Ordinance 222 after the city saw protesting from African Americans when the council raised the city's bus fares. The ordinance abolished race-based reserved seating requirements and allowed the admission of African Americans in

6600-457: The words of Jesus: "He who lives by the sword will perish by the sword". We must love our white brothers, no matter what they do to us. We must make them know that we love them. Jesus still cries out in words that echo across the centuries: "Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; pray for them that despitefully use you". This is what we must live by. We must meet hate with love. Remember, if I am stopped, this movement will not stop, because God

6688-472: The year, Montgomery police charged seven Klansmen with the bombings, but all of the defendants were acquitted. About the same time, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled against Martin Luther King's appeal of his "illegal boycott" conviction. Rosa Parks left Montgomery due to death threats and employment blacklisting. According to Charles Silberman , "by 1963, most Negroes in Montgomery had returned to

6776-405: Was "above reproach". When Colvin was arrested in March 1955, Nixon thought he had found the perfect person, but the teenager turned out to be pregnant. Nixon later explained, "I had to be sure that I had somebody I could win with." Parks was a good candidate because of her employment and marital status, along with her good standing in the community. Between Parks' arrest and trial, Nixon organized

6864-473: Was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery , Alabama . It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States. The campaign lasted from December 5, 1955—the Monday after Rosa Parks , an African-American woman, was arrested for her refusal to surrender her seat to a white person—to December 20, 1956, when

6952-520: Was afraid to go out after dark, and Taylor would not leave even during the day. She not only feared the threats from the angry vigilantes of the town, but also the threats from her attackers the night of the assault. Her family member, Benny Corbitt, took guard in a tree every night with a gun guarding Taylor and the family until daybreak. Taylor and her family assumed they would live the rest of their lives in fear. However, talk of "the brutal rape and phony hearing" resonated through NAACP chapters throughout

7040-554: Was an African-American woman from Abbeville in Henry County, Alabama . She was born and raised in a sharecropping family in the Jim Crow era Southern United States . In the 1940s, Taylor's refusal to remain silent about her rape by white men led to organizing in the African-American community for justice and civil rights. On September 3, 1944, Taylor was kidnapped while leaving church and gang-raped by six white men. Despite

7128-578: Was built in Rosa Parks 's honor to educate and tell people of her story. While the actual bus the on which the incident occurred is on display at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, there is one on exhibit which is identical to it. Troy University in Montgomery, Alabama wanted to dedicate their new library and museum to Rosa Parks, "The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement". The library carries her name and it commemorates her refusal to give up her seat on

7216-551: Was funny, witty. She was a churchgoer. She loved going to church, she loved to sing. She was very welcoming ..." At the 2018 State of the Union , members of the Congressional Black Caucus invited Taylor's family to attend the speech and wore red "Recy" pins in honor of Taylor. Taylor died in her sleep at a nursing home at the age of 97 in Abbeville, Alabama, on December 28, 2017, just three days before her 98th birthday, and just 20 days after The Rape of Recy Taylor

7304-485: Was passed, and the boycott was to commence the following Monday. To publicize the impending boycott it was advertised at black churches throughout Montgomery the following Sunday. On Saturday, December 3, it was evident that the black community would support the boycott, and very few Black people rode the buses that day. On December 5, a mass meeting was held at the Holt Street Baptist Church to determine if

7392-433: Was raped by six of the men, including Lovett. Taylor's kidnapping was reported immediately to the police by Daniel. Daniel identified the car as belonging to Hugo Wilson, who admitted to picking up Taylor and, as he put it, "carrying her to the spot" and pinned the rape on six men, Dillard York, Billy Howerton, Herbert Lovett, Luther Lee, Joe Culpepper, and Robert Gamble. Even though three eyewitnesses identified Wilson as

7480-451: Was shocked at the second dismissal of Taylor's case. The news coverage of the second hearing was more hostile towards Taylor based on the false claims of her being a prostitute. The assistant attorney general stated that: "This case has been presented to two grand juries in Henry County and both grand juries have not seen fit to find an indictment", claiming that "no facts or circumstances connected with this case have been suppressed." Despite

7568-454: Was stopped from boarding a city bus by driver James F. Blake , who ordered her to board at the rear door and then drove off without her. Parks vowed never again to ride a bus driven by Blake. As a member of the NAACP, Parks was an investigator assigned to cases of sexual assault. In 1945, she was sent to Abbeville, Alabama , to investigate the gang rape of Recy Taylor . The protest that arose around

7656-486: Was walking home from church on September 3, 1944, with her friend Fannie Daniel and Daniel's teenage son West, when a car pulled up behind them on the road. In the car were US Army Private Herbert Lovett and six other men, all armed. Herbert Lovett accused Taylor of cutting Tommy Clarson "that white boy in Clopton this evening." This accusation was false, as Taylor had been with Daniel all day. The seven men forced Taylor into

7744-547: Was widely publicized, specifically by the weekly newspaper Jet , which circulated in much of the black community in the North. His killers were acquitted the following month. There was massive outrage at this verdict both domestically and internationally. In an interview on January 24, 1956, published in Look magazine, the two men admitted to murdering Till. In November 1955, three weeks before Parks's defiance of Jim Crow laws in Montgomery,

#788211