Montgomery resident W.J. Williams was 31 when Rosa Parks was arrested and local pastor Martin Luther King Jr. called for a bus boycott. Williams, a World War II veteran, was moved to help. And he had a car.
A friend had stopped by his house to share the news of Parks’ arrest and invite him to the first of many civil rights meetings. There, at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Williams listened as King presided over the gathering where a group of Montgomerians decided to boycott city buses.
The boycott would last for 13 months and bring the city to its knees. Williams was one of more than 200 people who dedicated himself to helping neighbors get where they needed to go during the protest.
“We had been mistreated so many times on that bus,” Williams said on Jan. 19, 2024, the day after his 100th birthday.
So, when Williams saw Black people on foot, he would stop and drive them as far as he was going, and after Williams finished his route delivering mail for the post office, he would drive down Narrow Lane Road and give a ride to whoever needed it.