WESTERN BRANCH NAACP OCCASION
On December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks boarded a Montgomery,
Alabama, city bus after finishing work, she paid her fare at the
front of the bus, re-boarded in the rear, and sat in a vacant seat.
Then a white man came on board, and the bus driver told
Mrs. Parks to let the white man have her seat. But she refused.
You all know what happened next. Mrs. Parks‟s arrest led to a
382 day bus boycott, the desegregation of buses throughout the
United States, and the beginning of Dr. Martin Luther King‟s
leadership and activism.
Good morning. I am pleased to bring you today‟s occasion – a
mini history lesson – on behalf of the Chatham County Board of
Commissioners of which Sally Kost is chair and George Lucier is
vice chair; the Human Relations Commission, of which Heather
Rodin is chair and Norman Clark is vice chair; and County
Manager Charlie Horne.
And on behalf of Dr. King himself as well as our beloved,
departed leaders Margie Ellison and Margaret Pollard, I am here
this morning to ask us – black, brown, white, everyone – “What
are you going to do? What are we going to do?”
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Dr. King‟s leadership in the civil rights movement exemplified both
community activism and civic engagement from the early days in
1955 when he was a brand new activist in Montgomery to multiple
incarcerations all the way down to his involvement in the passing
of civil rights legislation in the mid 60s.
The fact is that people across the Montgomery community – some
well educated like Dr. King and some with very little formal
education but a whole lot of „mother wit‟ like E. D. Nixon and Rosa
Parks – they all came together to demand that they be treated
fairly, equitably, and respectfully.
As a matter of fact, long before Mrs. Parks‟s arrest, the local
NAACP – which would have been much like our own local
western branch of the NAACP – had already been planning a bus
boycott. They were just waiting for a person whose arrest would
anger the black community into action. So, this was the role
Mrs. Parks and the NAACP played.
At that very point, the movement became like a snowball rolling
down a hill and gathering momentum and getting bigger and
faster as it rolled. The afternoon of the arrest, E. D. Nixon and
other local black leaders formed the Montgomery Improvement
Association or MIA for short.
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They chose a twenty-five-year-old black minister, Martin Luther
King Jr., pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, as
president, first because he was an intelligent, young black man
and also because his position as a newcomer to the city meant he
had not yet formed personal enemies who might also become
enemies of the boycott. So, strategically picking Dr. King was one
role E. D. Nixon and the MIA members played.
Now the snowball was gathering momentum. On the evening of
Mrs. Parks's arrest, a woman named Jo Ann Robinson duplicated
– hear this – 35,000 flyers on a mimeograph machine. Anybody
remember those? Imagine her making 35,000 copies!
I made copies of that flyer for you, so you can see for yourself. It
urged blacks to “stay off all buses Monday”. Just that simple. So,
that was the role Jo Ann Robinson played.
And the snowball kept rolling. To help transport the boycotters, a
volunteer carpool began with 300 drivers in their personal
vehicles. And black taxi drivers charged a vastly reduced ten
cents per ride in support of the boycott. These were the roles the
taxi drivers and the 300 volunteers played.
Well that snowball rolled on to February 1, 1956, when Dr. King
and the MIA filed suit in the United States District Court
challenging the constitutionality of bus segregation.
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In the same month, Dr. King and more than 90 others were
arrested for conspiring to conduct a boycott. That was the
courageous role Dr. King and the local leaders played.
In fact, the real reason for the success of the Montgomery Bus
Boycott – which in turn launched Dr. King into the civil rights
movement as we know it and, ultimately, led to the demise of
legal segregation – was the civic engagement and united
resistance of one entire community in the South.
The truth is that the people in Montgomery, Alabama, and the
challenges they faced back then were not that different from us
here in 2010 in Chatham County and the challenges we face.
No, we are no longer ruled by Jim Crow laws. No, black people
do not have to sit in the back of the bus. No, we do not have to
drink from a different water fountain. I remember those days, and
they are over. But we do have issues with discrimination against
people for their color, or their national origin, or their religion, or
their gender right here in Chatham County in 2010.
The truth is that while we live in one of the best places on earth,
all is not well for everyone here. All is not well for the homeless
children and hungry families and people with disabilities here in
Chatham County. All is not well for those who experience
employment or housing discrimination in Chatham County.
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And in Chatham County, we have divisiveness particularly
between the Eastern and the Western halves of the county and
between natives and newcomers.
In Chatham County, at the third grade level, we have a 33 point
reading performance gap between white students and
African-American students and a 37 point gap for Latino students
as compared to whites. And it is not much better in higher
grades.
At a mass rally on the initial day of the boycott, Dr. King said,
“Right here in Montgomery, when the history books are written in
the future, somebody will have to say, „There lived a race of
people – a black people, fleecy locks and black complexion – but
a people who had the moral courage to stand up for their rights.
And thereby they injected a new meaning into the veins of history
and civilization.‟ ”
On the back of the copy of Mrs. Robinson‟s flyer, I have listed 18
ways you can become active and engaged in our community such
as participating in the census to make sure everyone gets
counted or being trained by our Community Civil Rights Educators
or enrolling in Citizens College to learn how our county
government works or getting people registered to vote or joining
the NAACP. I am sure you can think of more.
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On this day when we celebrate the birthday and think about the
activism of this great leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., let‟s ask
ourselves if we are we willing to, as Dr. King said, inject “a new
meaning into the veins of history and civilization” here in Chatham
County like they did in Montgomery?
You never know. Dr. King and Margie and Margaret might just be
looking down on us and asking us “What are you going to do?”
“What are we going to do?” Thank you.
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