Jo Ann Robinson Was A Hero Of The Civil Rights Movement
By: Floyd Mori
Tags: Racism, Black People, Heroes, Injustice, Civil Rights

Jo Ann Robinson Was A Hero Of The Civil Rights Movement

Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash

She fought against injustice

Jo Ann Gibson Robinson was born in Georgia in 1912. She was the youngest of twelve children. Her father died when she was six years old. She excelled in school and was valedictorian in her graduating year at high school. She became the first person in her family to graduate from college when she received a bachelor’s degree from Fort Valley State College in 1934.

Robinson received advanced degrees at Atlanta University and Columbia University. She was a public school teacher in Georgia and Texas before accepting a position at Alabama State College.

The Women’s Political Council (WPC) had been founded by Mary Fair Burks. It was an organization dedicated to inspiring African Americans to rise above mediocrity. They had been taught to accept that they would not excel, and they needed hope that they could. It was also to fight juvenile delinquency and to increase voter registration in their community. The WPC encouraged women to be involved in civic affairs. They helped women who were victims of rape and helped African Americans to vote. Robinson joined the WPC in Montgomery, Alabama, three years after it was organized.

In December 1949, Robinson boarded a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. After she paid her fare, she saw that there were just two other passengers. A white woman was seated in the third row, and a black man was sitting near the back. She was aware of the segregation laws that did not allow Black persons to sit in the whites-only section in the front of the bus. Robinson sat in a seat near the middle. The driver pulled over, walked back to Robinson, and yelled that she was sitting too close to the white section. She was afraid that he would physically abuse her so she left the bus.

Robinson wanted to start a boycott to protest against bus segregation in Alabama. When she approached her fellow WPC members, she was told that it was a fact of life which they needed to accept. Robinson succeeded Burks as president of the WPC in 1950. She met with the mayor of Montgomery and the council, but they were not interested in what she had to say about the abuse of Black people on buses. She was an outspoken critic of the treatment that African Americans received on public transportation.

Black people who rode the buses experienced abuse on a regular basis. They were forced to pay at the front of the bus, then exit and re-enter through a separate door leading to the Black section in the back of the bus. The drivers would sometimes pull away before they could re-enter after they had paid their fare.

The WPC made complaints to the Montgomery City Commission about the segregated seating and about abusive drivers on the buses. Drivers were then instructed to be courteous and to stop at every corner in the Black neighborhoods as they did in white areas.

Montgomery NAACP Secretary Rosa Parks fought for racial justice. She was taken to the Montgomery jail after protesting the segregation matters on a bus. She had taken a seat on the first row behind the white section. She was asked to stand after a white person got on the bus. She moved over but refused to give up her seat so she was arrested.

Robinson had been waiting for the right time to enact her boycott plans. She was an English professor at Alabama State College, which is now Alabama State University. She asked Black residents of the city to stay off the buses for one day to protest the arrest of Parks. A newspaper published a story about the boycott on its front page.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott began 65 years ago on Dec. 5, 1955. It lasted nearly 13 months and brought about change. It was an important part of the civil rights movement to try to end the racism faced by Black people. Jo Ann Robinson is remembered for her role in that effort. She was a civil right hero.

[Source: Southern Poverty Law Center, splc.org]