Joann Robinson

Without one individual, the Montgomery Bus Boycott would not have happened. This person is not Martin Luther King Jr., as many would suspect. Nor is it Rosa Parks, as many others believe. In fact, with or without the good reverend or the famous seamstress, this movement would have happened. It would just be a matter of a different leader and a different symbol to go along with the boycott. However, without the little known figure of Jo Ann Robinson, the movement would either have not happened, or have fizzled out due to a lack of organization. The story of Jo Ann Robinson’s fight for the rights of all human beings in the United States began on May 21, 1955.

On May 21, 1955, Jo Ann Robinson, empowered, wrote a letter to W.A. Gayle, the mayor of Montgomery, four days after the unanimous ruling on Brown v. the Board of Education. On May 17th, the Supreme Court case Brown vs. the Board of Education overturned an earlier case, Ferguson v. Plessy. Ferguson v. Plessy had established Separate but Equal as law, which had been used by the southern white population in order to continue oppressing all other races for over half of a century, making sure that no one of color could impose upon the supposed supremacy of the white population. However, when the ruling on Brown v. the Board of Education was passed down, this ruling said that there was no way in which separate but equal could exist in the educational system, putting a large chink in the argument for separate but equal on all other terms as well. The Brown v Board ruling made it so that the African-American community was ready to fight for their rights, knowing that they had the law on their side for the first time in American history (Kinshasa, Kwando).

The letter which Robinson had sent the mayor had iterated two small demands for “better seating arrangements” on the city buses (Kinshasa, Kwando). These demands were: first, a city law that would make it so that the bus arrangements were from front to back for the...