This month marks seventy years since the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Civil rights icon Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a muncipal bus to a white passenger on December first of 1955. Four days later the boycott began. The event made both Parks and Doctor Martin Luther King, Junior into international figures. A lot has been said and reported on the Montgomery Boycott. But, only a few can say they were there. APR student reporter Torin Daniel has more on someone who planned the boycott and one witness who saw it.
“The greatest planning I did, as far as planning for a a an event, was the planning that Joanne and I made in her living room for the Montgomery bus boycott,” said Fred Gray.
He was the attorney to both MLK and Rosa Parks. As far as the Montgomery Bus Boycott was concerned, Gray was in the middle of it. The Joanne Robinson he referred to, plays a big role later in this story, APR News spoke with gray about the Montgomery Bus Boycott back in 2018 This is the first time this audio has been heard in public.
“There’s some misunderstanding on some people, part because some people think he came to Montgomery to start a civil rights movement,” Gray continued.
He was referring to his client, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. He recalled how choosing King to lead the bus boycott wasn’t guaranteed. Two other names came up, Ed Lewis and Rufus Nixon. They were both well known civil rights activists. Remember the Joanne Robinson that Fred Gray mentioned earlier. He says she was the group leader who made her feelings known…