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Rosa Parks: The Birth of the Montgomery Bus Boycott

by Roberta Hughes Wright

209 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #06-1040; ISBN 1-4120-9286-8; US$15.00, C$17.25, EUR12.32, £8.63

This retrospective study shows that the events of those 381 days of the boycott produced an episode in the long history of man's struggle for freedom that was decidedly unprecedented.

About the Book

When Rosa Parks was ordered to give up her seat, she defied the conventional assumption that her blackness was a badge of inferiority. She just sat there. Mrs. Parks in her own words – “Why do I have to stand up so someone else can have my seat?”

E.D. Nixon was the community activist who people trusted. He had spent years waiting for the right person to defy the law. He immediately knew that Rosa was the person, strong enough to represent the community and she would not back down.

Mr. Nixon, a sleeping car porter on the Montgomery to Chicago run, spent December 2 with Reverend Ralph Abemathy, informing the black ministers of Mrs. Parks’ arrest and about the plans for a meeting, hopefully to plan a one-day boycott.

The ministers met. At the same time JoAnn Gibson Robinson, an English professor at Alabama State College and a member of the Women’s Political Council, had been charged with plans to attack the system. Robinson used the mimeograph machine as her ammunition.

Who would be the president of this new group? Who could help try to organize a boycott for Monday, December 5? Someone suggested that the Reverend Martin Luther King was new to the community and not identified with any political group. Nixon had heard him speak once at a NAACP meeting and said he was good.

King was selected; he hesitated to accept but agreed. That night when King spoke, pandemonium broke out. The churchwomen rocked with emotion and screamed. Thunderous hand-clapping and foot-stomping shook the church to its foundation. From that night there was no turning back, they would never be the same again… nor would anyone else.

About the Author

Roberta Hughes Wright (nee Greenidge) was born in Detroit, Michigan and has lived in the area all her life. She holds a bachelor of science degree, a masters degree and a juris doctor degree from Wayne State University and a doctor of philosophy degree in behavior sciences in education, from the University of Michigan. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, a member of Great Lakes Chapter of the Links, Inc., a life member of the NAACP and a founder and a ten-year member of the board of directors of the First Independence National Bank of Detroit. She is a member of the board of directors of Detroit Memorial Park Association and of the Finance Committee for the three cemeteries owned by the company.

Dr. Hughes Wright, now retired, had a legal practice in Michigan, was a member of the Bar of the District of Columbia and was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States of America.

She is the widow of Wilbur B. Hughes. Their two children are Barbara K. Hughes Smith, Ph.D and Wilbur B. Hughes, III, J.D.

She has six grandchildren. She is also the widow of Charles H. Wright, M.D., founder of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, Michigan. She is a member of three of the Museum’s Support Committees: The Friends Committee, The Women’s Committee and the “And Still We Rise” core exhibit study committee.

Dr. Hughes Wright is the author or co-author of twelve books and has received several awards and recognitions. She is a member of Plymouth United Church of Christ.

Excerpts