On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to obey bus driver James F. Blake’s order to give up her seat in the “colored section” to a white passenger, after the whites-only section was filled. The event would turn out to be the beginning of one of the most pivotal times in American history, igniting the Montgomery Bus Boycott, one of the most groundbreaking acts of civil disobedience in modern times. According to a Washington Post interview with Mr. Blake, on December 1, 1955, Blake ordered Rosa Parks and three other black people to move from the middle to the back of his Cleveland Avenue bus in order to make room for a white male passenger. “Y’all better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats.” Ms. Parks refused. Blake then called his supervisor and told him the situation. The supervisor asked Mr. Blake, “Did you warn her, Jim?” Mr. Blake replied, “Yes I warned her.” ‘The supervisor then tells him, “Well then, Jim, you do it, you got to exercise your powers and put her off, hear?” In those days city ordinances gave bus drivers police powers when it came to segregation. Ms Parks was removed from the bus and arrested which lead not only to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, but also to Browder v. Gayle, the 1956 court case in which the United States District Court abolished segregation in transportation for the whole county in which Montgomery, Alabama is located. Yes, I know, it doesn’t seem like a big thing. Unless you were one of the thousands that could be told to give up your seat, or move to the back of the bus, and even get off the bus, based on the color of your skin. All of that and realizing that 75 percent of the passengers that supported the county bus lines were people of color. Mr Blake died in 2002. He was 89 yrs. When informed of Mr. Blake’s death, Ms. Parks replied, “I’m sure his family will miss him.”
Although many of us have heard of Rosa Parks and the instrumental role she played in the Civil Rights Movement, there were other pioneers, other denizens forging inroads to equality, to the “shining city on the hill.” Ronald Reagan used the term in his farewell address almost 30 years ago. How poignant that the original author of the term, John Winthrope, saw democracy as one of the most vilest forms of government man has ever devised. If you get time, check out John Winthrope, he is a very interesting character. Here is a list of the some of the not so notable hero’s.
Elizabeth Jennings Graham: In 1854, Graham insisted on her right to ride on an available New York City streetcar at a time when all such companies were private and most operated segregated cars. Her case was decided in her favor in 1855, and it led to the eventual desegregation of all New York City transit systems by 1865.
Claudette Colvin : On March 2, 1955, she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus in segregated Montgomery, Alabama, nine months prior to Rosa Parks. Montgomery’s black leaders did not publicize Colvin’s pioneering effort because she was a teenager. Her family also did not fit the profile of “Savior’s of the Race,” Her father mowed lawns for a living and her mom was a maid.
Sarah Keys: Sarah Louise Keys, interpreted the non-discrimination language of the Interstate Commerce Act as banning the segregation of black passengers in buses traveling across state lines. Yep, before Sarah stepped in, if you crossed state lines on a bus than you would be subject to that states Jim Crow laws, even if it was legal in the county you just left. Keys v. Carolina Coach was the only explicit rejection ever made by either a court or a federal administrative body of the Plessy v. Ferguson doctrine in the field of bus travel across state lines. Plessy v. Ferguson was the U.S. Supreme Court decision that made “separate but equal” the law of the land.
Edgar Daniel Nixon: A union organizer in Alabama who played a crucial role in organizing the landmark Montgomery Bus Boycott there in 1955. Martin Luther King Jr. described Nixon as “one of the chief voices of the Negro community in the area of civil rights,” and “a symbol of the hopes and aspirations of the long oppressed people of the State of Alabama.”
Robert “Bobby” DeLaughter : For prosecuting and securing the conviction in 1994 of Byron De La Beckwith, charged with the murder of the civil rights leader Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963. Two earlier trials in Mississippi in 1964 had resulted in hung juries. In an aside, remember no good deed goes unpunished. On November 13, 2009, DeLaughter was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for this obstruction-of-justice charge. He was incarcerated in the federal prison at McCreary and was released on April 13, 2011.
Nolan Breedlove: Contrary to popular belief, blacks were not the only victims of the infamous “poll tax.” Mr. Breedlove, a white male, 28 years of age, declined to pay the tax. Although Mr Breedlove lost in state court, (he actually sued because women were exempt from the tax), his case eventually led to the 24th Amendment in 1964, prohibiting the use of the poll tax (or any other tax) as a precondition for voting in federal elections. After the right to vote was extended to all races by the enactment of the Fifteenth Amendment, a number of states enacted poll tax laws as a device for restricting voting rights. The laws often included a grandfather clause, which allowed any adult male whose father or grandfather had voted in a specific year prior to the abolition of slavery to vote without paying the tax. These laws, along with unfairly implemented literacy tests and extra-legal intimidation, achieved the desired effect of disenfranchising African-American and Native American voters, as well as poor whites.
Mildred Loving: Ever heard of “miscegenation?” Well there was a lot of miscegenation going on back in the day. We can thank Mrs Loving for making it legal. Mildred Loving, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, had been sentenced to a year in prison in Virginia for marrying each other. Their marriage violated the state’s anti-miscegenation statute, the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which prohibited marriage between people classified as “white” and people classified as “colored”. The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision determined that this prohibition was unconstitutional, ending all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States. The decision was followed by an increase in interracial marriages in the U.S., and is remembered annually on Loving Day, June 12.
These are some of the people that history forgot, or better stated, relegated to a couple of footnotes in the back, but whose contribution affected millions. Happy Martin Luther King Day to our unsung heroes and you.
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