Women of the Montgomery Bus Boycott

The Reference Desk

In this episode, Hailee is bewitched by some unsung heroines of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

While we all know the name Rosa Parks and her rightful place in history, too few know the names Claudette Colvin, Georgia Gilmore, and Elizabeth Jennings. These brave women fought for transportation justice, helping in their own ways a century apart to end segregation on public transportation. Elizabeth Jennings sued the Third Avenue Railroad Company because of their discrimination of African-American people on city streetcars in NYC in the 1850s. Claudette Colvin refused her seat on a segregated Montgomery bus before Rosa Parks and before the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and Georgia Gilmore organized a group of women to sell their baked goods and cooked meals to raise money for the Boycott.

Staff picks:

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Related media recommendations:

Sweet Justice: Georgia Gilmore and the Montgomery Bus by Mara Rockliff

The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South by John T. Edge

Feed the Resistance: Recipes + Ideas for Getting Involved by Julia Turshen

Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson by Jo Ann Gibson

Street Car to Justice: How Elizabeth Jennings Won the Right to Ride in New York by Amy Hill Hearth

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Philip Hoose

The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones by Daven McQueen

Walking to the Bus-Rider Blues by Harriet Gillem Robinet

The last is a series of books: The Logan Family Saga by Mildred Taylor

If you are interested in any of the books we talk about in this episode, please consider purchasing them through our affiliate link with Bookshop.org

Sources:

Overlooked No More: Georgia Gilmore, Who Fed and Funded the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Meet The Fearless Cook Who Secretly Fed — And Funded — The Civil Rights Movement

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Before Rosa Parks, There Was Claudette Colvin

(Southern) Black Women’s Presence in Invisibility: Miss Georgia Gilmore & The Club from Nowhere

In the Montgomery bus boycott, Georgia Gilmore fed workers, MLK, and everyone in between

Overlooked: Elizabeth Jennings

BLACK HISTORY MONTH SPOTLIGHT: ELIZABETH JENNINGS GRAHAM

Claudette Colvin: the woman who refused to give up her bus seat – nine months before Rosa Parks

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

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