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The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson
The Montgomery Bus Boycott, which ignited the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, has always been vitally important in southern and black history. With the publication of this book, the boycott becomes a milestone in the history of American women as well.
"This autobiographical account of the creation of the boycott is the most important document on that highly significant episode since Martin Luther King's own version, Stride Towards Freedom. I feel certain that scholars and students will refer to this unique historical source for generations to come."
—J. Mills Thornton, University of Michigan
"This valuable first-hand account of the historic Montgomery Bus Boycott, written by an important, behind-the-scenes organizer, evokes the emotional intensity of the civil rights struggle. It ought to be required reading for all Americans who value their freedom and the contribution of black women to our history."
—Coretta Scott King
"A sharply remembered addition to the literature on what has become an event of mythic proportions, and a sound primer for those interested in community organizing. The author is scrupulously honest, modest, and gives unsung heroes much deserved praise."
—Kirkus
"This fascinating memoir provides new evidence on the origins and sustaining force of the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–'56)."
—Anthony O. Edmonds, Library Journal
"There's no substitute for this intimate memoir; it provides an immediacy and graphic intensity never before available."
—Marge Frantz, San Jose Mercury News
"This powerful memoir is a milestone in the history of that boycott and in the American Civil Rights Movement."
—American History Illustrated
"This absorbing study may become a minor classic in the literature of the Montgomery bus boycott. . . . Garrow correctly states in his Foreword that this book is the most important participant-observer account of the Montgomery protest available to students and scholars of the black freedom movement. . . . This straightforward, sensitive memoir is must reading for students of the civil rights movement. It is a powerful commentary on how a woman and the group she led rose up to throw off an injustice thrust upon them. When Jo Ann Robinson and other Montgomery women decided no longer to play the role of contented black Southerners, they gave blacks everywhere renewed hope, and they helped to create a national leader who took them closer to the promised land."
—Jimmie L. Franklin, The Alabama Review
"In an absorbing, first-hand narrative, the dignified and unassuming Robinson focuses on the role of the Women's Political Council (WPC) and details the WPC's plans to engineer a boycott months before the heralded arrest of Rosa Parks. . . . The value of this primary source will endure long after many best-selling, secondary accounts of national politics during this period have disappeared."
—Keith D. Miller and Elizabeth Vander Lei, Explorations in Sight and Sound
"This autobiographical account of the creation of the boycott is the most important document on that highly significant episode since Martin Luther King's own version, Stride Towards Freedom. I feel certain that scholars and students will refer to this unique historical source for generations to come."
—J. Mills Thornton, University of Michigan
"This valuable first-hand account of the historic Montgomery Bus Boycott, written by an important, behind-the-scenes organizer, evokes the emotional intensity of the civil rights struggle. It ought to be required reading for all Americans who value their freedom and the contribution of black women to our history."
—Coretta Scott King
"A sharply remembered addition to the literature on what has become an event of mythic proportions, and a sound primer for those interested in community organizing. The author is scrupulously honest, modest, and gives unsung heroes much deserved praise."
—Kirkus
"This fascinating memoir provides new evidence on the origins and sustaining force of the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–'56)."
—Anthony O. Edmonds, Library Journal
"There's no substitute for this intimate memoir; it provides an immediacy and graphic intensity never before available."
—Marge Frantz, San Jose Mercury News
"This powerful memoir is a milestone in the history of that boycott and in the American Civil Rights Movement."
—American History Illustrated
"This absorbing study may become a minor classic in the literature of the Montgomery bus boycott. . . . Garrow correctly states in his Foreword that this book is the most important participant-observer account of the Montgomery protest available to students and scholars of the black freedom movement. . . . This straightforward, sensitive memoir is must reading for students of the civil rights movement. It is a powerful commentary on how a woman and the group she led rose up to throw off an injustice thrust upon them. When Jo Ann Robinson and other Montgomery women decided no longer to play the role of contented black Southerners, they gave blacks everywhere renewed hope, and they helped to create a national leader who took them closer to the promised land."
—Jimmie L. Franklin, The Alabama Review
"In an absorbing, first-hand narrative, the dignified and unassuming Robinson focuses on the role of the Women's Political Council (WPC) and details the WPC's plans to engineer a boycott months before the heralded arrest of Rosa Parks. . . . The value of this primary source will endure long after many best-selling, secondary accounts of national politics during this period have disappeared."
—Keith D. Miller and Elizabeth Vander Lei, Explorations in Sight and Sound
190 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
36 people are currently reading
1272 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
June 15, 2014
The Civil Rights Movement has been romanticized and boiled down to two events: Martin Luther King Jr having a dream and Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat to a white man on the bus. The truth of the matter is the Civil Right Movement was much more complicated than that.
While most history books limit the discussion of the Montgomery Bus Boycott to Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr there were many, many other people who played a major role in this event.
Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson by Jo Ann Robinson provides an excellent first-hand account of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
JoAnn Robinson was the President of the Women’s Political Council (WPC). She was one of the many people who played a major role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, but is often left out of the history books. The WPC planned the bus boycott long before the Rosa Parks incident. They were just waiting for the right moment to put things in action. When Rosa Parks was arrested they decided the time was right and put things in action. Once the boycott was in full effect, the realized they needed a leader/spokesman who could deal with the officials and the spotlight. Martin Luther King Jr was elected for that role
As Ms. Robinson points out, the boycott was successful because of the people. Her book provides a detailed first hand account of the activities that took place before the boycott and during the 13 months of the boycott.
This book should be required reading in all schools because the real life lesson behind events such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott is the power that ordinary people have when they all work together for a common cause.
While most history books limit the discussion of the Montgomery Bus Boycott to Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr there were many, many other people who played a major role in this event.
Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson by Jo Ann Robinson provides an excellent first-hand account of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
JoAnn Robinson was the President of the Women’s Political Council (WPC). She was one of the many people who played a major role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, but is often left out of the history books. The WPC planned the bus boycott long before the Rosa Parks incident. They were just waiting for the right moment to put things in action. When Rosa Parks was arrested they decided the time was right and put things in action. Once the boycott was in full effect, the realized they needed a leader/spokesman who could deal with the officials and the spotlight. Martin Luther King Jr was elected for that role
As Ms. Robinson points out, the boycott was successful because of the people. Her book provides a detailed first hand account of the activities that took place before the boycott and during the 13 months of the boycott.
This book should be required reading in all schools because the real life lesson behind events such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott is the power that ordinary people have when they all work together for a common cause.
May 8, 2024
If you've ever heard any iteration of Rosa Parks' bus seat story, you're going to need this volume - it gives details from the inside of the bus boycott of planning, cooperation, faith, organization, consequences, beginning, and results. There's so much I didn't know.
It's an inspiring story, especially now in trying to mobilize against genocide. Segregation and genocide are depressingly popular things. But there's proof humanity and good can win. But you have to organize. And be a little unruly.
It's an inspiring story, especially now in trying to mobilize against genocide. Segregation and genocide are depressingly popular things. But there's proof humanity and good can win. But you have to organize. And be a little unruly.
February 12, 2017
We all remember learning about the boycott-- about Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the boycott's success. However, we don't often learn about two other women who were arrested before Rosa Parks or that the Women's Political Council was the first group to speak with the bus company on this matter (get 'em, ladies!) We don't often learn about how the Montgomery Improvement Association was formed, how it was funded, or how they spread news to their supporters. Not only did the community support each other through donations as well as transportation and carpool services, but donations were also received from people nationwide and even some of white employers donated to their employees or drove them to work to help in the cause. Uncovering this full story is important to understand that the power of numbers, of unity, of support really drives change.
This is great memoir about the basics of the this 13-month long boycott: how it started, how people reacted, and how the legal proceedings occurred. Robinson's narrative voice is charming, spirited and uplifting. Hearing about this time from one of the major contributors vs. learning about it through newspapers (although the text does include some) or academic texts grounds the movement, giving readers a clearer picture of real faces and voices of the many others involved.
This is great memoir about the basics of the this 13-month long boycott: how it started, how people reacted, and how the legal proceedings occurred. Robinson's narrative voice is charming, spirited and uplifting. Hearing about this time from one of the major contributors vs. learning about it through newspapers (although the text does include some) or academic texts grounds the movement, giving readers a clearer picture of real faces and voices of the many others involved.
January 21, 2009
When reading memoirs, one never really knows what one will get. However, even though the writing in this memoir leaves a little to be desired, compared to another Civil Rights memoir i recently read (Daisy Bates' memoir about the integration of Little Rock), it offered so much insight into the modern Civil Rights movement and the ordinary people involved in it. She really gives a reader a sense of what the Montgomery Bus Boycott meant to the black people of Montgomery and to the world. It was a chance to finally do something, to finally be able to take action against a system that had been oppressing them for years. At the end of this book, I felt like I finally had a sense of what the Civil Rights movement meant to black people and why so many people risked their lives and their livelihoods to try and affect change in a movement that was fighting an uphill battle.
December 5, 2014
I've been wanting to read Jo Ann Robinson's memoir for years. Now, with all the upheaval going on, seemed like the perfect time to get a glimpse into the story of a woman who changed the world without hardly anyone knowing her name.
We hear often about Dr. King, and about Rosa Parks...but without Jo Ann Robinson and the work of the Women's Political Committee, there may not have been a Montgomery bus boycott. They worked for years, preparing and waiting for the right time. Jo Ann managed to write a flyer and create 52,000 copies of it overnight, to kick the boycott off. Then she remained as one of the few women included in the upper levels of the negotiations, boycott, and legal situations.
Her memoir is a testament to her faith, her courage, and the amazing capacity of the human spirit. Please read.
We hear often about Dr. King, and about Rosa Parks...but without Jo Ann Robinson and the work of the Women's Political Committee, there may not have been a Montgomery bus boycott. They worked for years, preparing and waiting for the right time. Jo Ann managed to write a flyer and create 52,000 copies of it overnight, to kick the boycott off. Then she remained as one of the few women included in the upper levels of the negotiations, boycott, and legal situations.
Her memoir is a testament to her faith, her courage, and the amazing capacity of the human spirit. Please read.
Read
March 22, 2025This was a very heartwarming and inspiring book that I feel will really help me understand the unit we’re discussing in history right now. It went into great detail of the boycott in such an easily comprehensible way😊. (The audible audio book was great!)
July 10, 2025
Eye opening, honest, and beautifully written. This should be required reading. Not only in high schools, but for everyone.
November 25, 2018
Excellent book for those who want to find out more of the details around the bus boycott --- and to read about an extraordinary woman.
December 19, 2013
I acquired and edited this book for the University of Tennessee Press during the summer of 1984. Some things stand out in my mind: Mrs. Robinson's personal voice, her love of her home town (Montgomery), the complex organization of the boycott, its broad base of support among the African American community, the importance of women in organizing the boycott and sustaining it. This and a couple of other books published around the same time called attention to the importance of African American colleges and sororities in preparing the ground for the Civil Rights Movement.
March 13, 2025
The Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-1956 was a turning point in American history. It ended segregation laws throughout the South; showed the power of a united Black community; and launched an unknown minister named Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. into activism.
This memoir provides an eyewitness account of the struggle. Before Rosa Parks made her courageous refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man, before Dr. King's historic moral oratory, there was a group of Black women in Montgomery who were already planning a bus boycott.
The Women's Political Caucus was formed in 1946, when the local League of Women Voters refused to admit Black women. By 1955 the WPC had grown from 40 members to around 400. Many women, including WPC President Jo Ann Gibson Robinson (1912-1992), had first hand experience of humiliating treatment on board Montgomery buses.
So the night Rosa Parks was arrested, on December 1, 1955, Robinson swung into action, calling for a one-day boycott of Montgomery buses.The rest is history.
This is a fascinating, and very humble, account of that history. There is so much to learn about community organizing from this highly readable book.
The weekly mass meetings, the incredible work in providing daily rides to work and back, the community fund raising--and the serious resistance to the boycott. King's home was bombed. Rosa Parks and her husband lost their jobs. Robinson was stalked and threatened, her car sabotaged, she was jailed, and at one point had received 17 traffic tickets for trumped-up charges.
But after 381 days, the Black community of Montgomery, Alabama, won--and kickstarted the modern Civil Rights Movement.
This memoir provides an eyewitness account of the struggle. Before Rosa Parks made her courageous refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man, before Dr. King's historic moral oratory, there was a group of Black women in Montgomery who were already planning a bus boycott.
The Women's Political Caucus was formed in 1946, when the local League of Women Voters refused to admit Black women. By 1955 the WPC had grown from 40 members to around 400. Many women, including WPC President Jo Ann Gibson Robinson (1912-1992), had first hand experience of humiliating treatment on board Montgomery buses.
So the night Rosa Parks was arrested, on December 1, 1955, Robinson swung into action, calling for a one-day boycott of Montgomery buses.The rest is history.
This is a fascinating, and very humble, account of that history. There is so much to learn about community organizing from this highly readable book.
The weekly mass meetings, the incredible work in providing daily rides to work and back, the community fund raising--and the serious resistance to the boycott. King's home was bombed. Rosa Parks and her husband lost their jobs. Robinson was stalked and threatened, her car sabotaged, she was jailed, and at one point had received 17 traffic tickets for trumped-up charges.
But after 381 days, the Black community of Montgomery, Alabama, won--and kickstarted the modern Civil Rights Movement.
February 16, 2023
A 5 for an absolutely amazing blow-by-blow account of one of the seminal events in a seminal period of American history. The straightforward language of Robinson's memoir served her purpose: to record historical events as she experienced them, plain and simple.
In addition to providing great insight about what led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and how it played out, this text also (unintentionally??) pointed to the often-unsung roles of women in history. I had no idea that a woman first suggested the boycott, built support for it over the months, seized the moment when Rosa Parks was arrested, figured out how to mobilize people and then participated in the leadership council that directed the boycott! Without taking anything away from Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, the names I most closely associate with the boycott, Gibson Robinson's role was as important. She deserves the level of attention that Parks and other key Civil Rights leaders get. As an unassuming and modest person whose job heightened her commitment to being behind the scenes, she stayed out of the limelight. Because she was an unassuming and modest WOMAN, she hasn't (yet) garnered the attention she deserves. How many other women's names have been forgotten?
In addition to providing great insight about what led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and how it played out, this text also (unintentionally??) pointed to the often-unsung roles of women in history. I had no idea that a woman first suggested the boycott, built support for it over the months, seized the moment when Rosa Parks was arrested, figured out how to mobilize people and then participated in the leadership council that directed the boycott! Without taking anything away from Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, the names I most closely associate with the boycott, Gibson Robinson's role was as important. She deserves the level of attention that Parks and other key Civil Rights leaders get. As an unassuming and modest person whose job heightened her commitment to being behind the scenes, she stayed out of the limelight. Because she was an unassuming and modest WOMAN, she hasn't (yet) garnered the attention she deserves. How many other women's names have been forgotten?
August 4, 2024
50,000 humans stuck together and toughed out some bizarre white-people craziness to integrate public transportation but all that walking and car pooling and fund raising and lawyering was more about learning their own strength and power.
Centering the Women's Political Council and Montgomery Improvement Association, this memoir makes it clear that the ministers, including Dr. King, were pushed into participating and "leading" by their parishioners.
This a friendlier and funnier civil rights memoir than some others I've read. I appreciate the honesty about Ms. Robinson's at times unchristian feelings and how she continues to strive to find the humanity in her enemies. I believe that some of the more "spiritual" or psychological aspects to activism are some of the most important lessons from this period.
I am thankful to the Montclair New Jersey Public Library for having a copy of this.
Centering the Women's Political Council and Montgomery Improvement Association, this memoir makes it clear that the ministers, including Dr. King, were pushed into participating and "leading" by their parishioners.
This a friendlier and funnier civil rights memoir than some others I've read. I appreciate the honesty about Ms. Robinson's at times unchristian feelings and how she continues to strive to find the humanity in her enemies. I believe that some of the more "spiritual" or psychological aspects to activism are some of the most important lessons from this period.
I am thankful to the Montclair New Jersey Public Library for having a copy of this.
September 6, 2020
Jo Ann Robinson is a lesser-known figure in the civil rights movement, but without prior years of her planning, the Montgomery Bus Boycott (in which King emerged as the public leader) couldn't have occurred. Concerned more about the goal than recognition, she needed prodding to publish this autobiography! Her courage and perseverance are praiseworthy.
July 10, 2017
An honest and detailed memoir that lends the Montgomery Bus Boycott great depth and detail. A celebration of the importance of community in accomplishing change and a reminder that history is not made by individuals but by the masses.
January 25, 2025
This was a worthy first-hand account of a woman on the inside of the bus boycott. I appreciated hearing more of her experiences of all involved and her true account of what it took to take this stand against racism.
Read
April 23, 2020I learned a lot in this book. It told me a lot about things that were unfair and the bus and how rosa parks got in jail should people to stand up and make a difrence in this world.
Want to read
September 21, 2020Recommended by Angela Davis in "Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement."
November 7, 2020
I have a new heroine.
January 18, 2021
A deep dive into these events, the planning, and the people involved. Well written, although a bit academic at times, those moments didn't last long enough to tire me out. Worth the read.
January 30, 2021
First person account of the Montgomery Bus Boycotts from a woman who should be as know as MLK, but isn’t
April 16, 2021
In my ignorance, I thought the bus boycott was all about Rosa Parks. I learned so much about the real story and those who were involved. A great and educating read.
June 9, 2021
Excellent insight into the Montgomery Bus Boycott. A perfect primary source, too! (I used it for a project for school.)
January 17, 2022
An inspiring episode of history beautifully and brilliantly told. Definitely worth your time.
February 27, 2024
Required reading for class on Civil Rights Movement. Enjoyed it a bit more than I would’ve thought. Very thorough for a memoir yet never too overbearing which I enjoyed.
November 25, 2025
Very enjoyable first person account of an interesting time in history. V. Helpful for my history assignment.
May 26, 2025
*for school
February 4, 2011
I had to read this book for my class, Women & Public Activism. This book was such a pleasure to read! It did an excellent job out outlining the difficulties people of color had in Montgomery at the time. I think it also did a great job of giving credit where credit is due. I had always assumed that it was men that cam eup with the idea and implimented it. Who know it was actually women who did all the work and men who were the face of the movement?
July 4, 2013
We have a tendency to simplify American history: Rosa Parks was tired, she didn't give up her seat, and people boycotted. The Montgomery bus boycott was a sophisticated movement which was the brainchild of a group of women in Montgomery. This is a personal story about watershed moment and gives the reader insight to the many people who stood up to sit down.
March 3, 2014
Little known stories and facts about the people involved in planning and organizing the boycotts (But also a great source of hope for any social movement). The boycotts began by church ladies raising funds through bake sales and organizing car pools. Great change can begin with (seemingly) small but organized acts. I loved it!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews