The Women’s Political Council: The Hidden Force Behind the Montgomery Bus Boycott
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. Her arrest for violating segregation laws heightened public awareness of the Civil Rights Movement and elevated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from his role as pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church to prominent spokesman for the movement.
While Parks and King are widely recognized, the contributions of the over 200 Black women of the Women’s Political Council (WPC) and activists like Claudette Colvin traditionally received little to no attention in the storytelling until recently. Led by Alabama State University professor Jo Ann Robinson, the WPC played a crucial role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The group printed and distributed 35,000 leaflets, organized carpools, and facilitated mass meetings.
In 1949, Robinson had been subjected to a verbal attack by a public bus driver for sitting in the “whites only” section of a nearly empty bus. She presented the idea of a boycott to WPC founder and president Mary Fair Burks in 1950 but was advised to forget her plans as segregated buses were seen as a fact of life in Montgomery. Upon assuming the presidency of the WPC later that year, Robinson prioritized the desegregation of the city’s buses and met with Montgomery Mayor William A. Gayle and Montgomery City Hall leaders to discuss her concerns, but neither the mayor nor the leaders were interested in her ideas. Robinson also met with the Montgomery City Commission and was promised better treatment of Black citizens on Montgomery buses but was told that segregation would continue. Robinson continued planning the boycott and, after the 1954 Brown v. The Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas decision, informed the mayor that the boycott was inevitable.
On March 2, 1955, months before Rosa Parks’ arrest, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin also refused to give up her seat. She was arrested, but civil rights leaders did not publicize her case, citing her young age, pregnancy, and darker complexion as factors. Instead, leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) arranged for Parks to be the face of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by preparing her to refuse to give up her seat.
Following Parks’ arrest, the WPC organized a one-day bus boycott on December 5, 1955. Its success led to an extended boycott, and several members of the Black community came together to form the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), electing Martin Luther King, Jr. as president. The MIA demanded an end to all public transportation segregation, the hiring of Black bus drivers, and the respectful treatment of Black riders. Robinson was offered but did not accept a position with the MIA. She did, however, quietly support the organization’s efforts. Robinson was also arrested, along with other Black boycotters, several times, and her car was destroyed with acid by Montgomery police officers.
Two months after the boycott began, civil rights attorneys filed Browder v. Gayle, challenging Montgomery’s segregation laws as violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The District Court decided 2-1 that Montgomery’s bus segregation laws were unconstitutional. Both the City of Montgomery and the State of Alabama appealed, but the Supreme Court upheld the decision on November 13, 1956, officially ending the boycott and marking a major victory for the Civil Rights Movement.
Further Reading
The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson by Jo Ann Robinson
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose
Women in the Civil Rights Movement: Trailblazers and Torchbearers, 1941-1965; Edited by Vicki L. Crawford, Jacqueline Anne Rouse, Barbara Woods