The Bus Boycott
The WPC had been planning for a citywide boycott of buses long before the historic boycott of 1955. In 1953 the WPC approached Montgomery city commissioners about unfair practices, such as having African Americans enter through the back of the bus after paying their fare up front, but the WPC’s concerns were consistently dismissed by city commissioners, even following Robinson’s statement that ‘‘even now plans are being made to ride less, or not at all, on our busses’’.
On 1 December 1955, the arrest of Rosa Parks gave the WPC the opportunity it had been waiting for. After Nixon, with the help of Virginia and Clifford Durr, gained Parks’ release from jail and secured her approval to use her arrest as a test case to challenge bus seating policies, Nixon called King and other black leaders to inform them of the effort, already under way, to boycott Montgomery’s buses. They announced December 5 as the day of the strike, and religious leaders within the African American community agreed to support the boycott.By this time Robinson and the WPC had already drafted, mimeographed, and begun circulating leaflets across the city, announcing the boycott. Throughout the boycott the WPC engaged in the daily activities of driving in the carpools, organizing mass meetings, and communicating with protesters.
Their role in the boycott, however, was not without consequences. Many WPC members were also teachers at Alabama State College, where officials closely investigated everyone involved in the boycott and in other student demonstrations. Tensions on the campus, especially after the sit-ins of 1960, caused many of the women, including Robinson and Burks, to resign from the college and find employment elsewhere, an event that dispersed key members throughout the nation.
After the boycott, the older generation of the WPC agreed to continue working to improve the difficulties faced by African Americans in the South, while at the same time teaching a younger generation of women to work for racial justice.
On 1 December 1955, the arrest of Rosa Parks gave the WPC the opportunity it had been waiting for. After Nixon, with the help of Virginia and Clifford Durr, gained Parks’ release from jail and secured her approval to use her arrest as a test case to challenge bus seating policies, Nixon called King and other black leaders to inform them of the effort, already under way, to boycott Montgomery’s buses. They announced December 5 as the day of the strike, and religious leaders within the African American community agreed to support the boycott.By this time Robinson and the WPC had already drafted, mimeographed, and begun circulating leaflets across the city, announcing the boycott. Throughout the boycott the WPC engaged in the daily activities of driving in the carpools, organizing mass meetings, and communicating with protesters.
Their role in the boycott, however, was not without consequences. Many WPC members were also teachers at Alabama State College, where officials closely investigated everyone involved in the boycott and in other student demonstrations. Tensions on the campus, especially after the sit-ins of 1960, caused many of the women, including Robinson and Burks, to resign from the college and find employment elsewhere, an event that dispersed key members throughout the nation.
After the boycott, the older generation of the WPC agreed to continue working to improve the difficulties faced by African Americans in the South, while at the same time teaching a younger generation of women to work for racial justice.
Burks later stated that ‘‘members of the Women’s Political Council were trailblazers’’ and credited the WPC for its ability ‘‘to arouse black middle-class women to do something about the things they could change in segregated Montgomery’’ (Burks, ‘‘Trailblazers,’’ 76).
The Leading Heroines of the WPC
Jo Ann Gibson RobinsonJo Ann Gibson Robinson, an English professor at Alabama State College, became president of the WPC in 1950. Under Robinson’s leadership, the WPC intensified their focus on bus reform. Members of the organization met several times with city officials throughout 1954 and 1955 in an effort to achieve better bus service. They had been considering a boycott of the Montgomery City Lines for years at the time of Rosa Parks’ arrest.
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Rosa ParksRosa Parks' arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man has, as they say, made history—together with the men and women behind the subsequent Montgomery bus boycott, which lasted for 381 days, crippling the bus system and bringing an end to racially segregated seating on Montgomery public buses. This Pamphlet was widely distributed by the Women's Political Council, with Jo Ann Robinson at its head, just days after Parks's arrest.
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