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Black history, Feminism

Mary Louise Smith Ware

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Mary Louise Smith Ware

There was activism long before the 1960s and it continues today. Honoring Mary Louise Smith Ware on the anniversary of her refusal–October 21, 1955–to give up her bus seat and become one in the long line of “Rosa Parks” women

 

Mary Louise Smith Ware
Mickey Welsh—Montgomery Advertiser/AP–took the featured photo at the top of the post of Ms Ware next to the bust of Rosa Parks

As unfair as it may sound, being historic sometimes depends on whether others think you can be historic. In other words, you may do something historic, but others feel that you do not look the part and thus your historic act is left to wither.

Mary Louise Smith Ware

Elizabeth Jennings

Elizabeth Jennings lived in New York City and on July  16, 1854 the 24-year-old Black schoolteacher was on her way with friend Sarah Adams to the First Colored American Congregational Church on Sixth Street near the Bowery, where she was an organist. She boarded a Third Avenue Railroad Company horsecar at Pearl and Chatham Streets in lower Manhattan. Soon after boarding, the conductor ordered them to get off and wait for a car that served African American passengers.

Jennings refused, but with the assistance of police, the conductor succeeded in forcefully removing Adams and Jennings.

Irene Morgan

The right to chose a bus seat regardless of one’s race was not possible under the enacted Jim Crow laws of many states as well as the unspoken norms of most states. On July 16, 1944, 27-year-old Irene Morgan, recovering from a miscarriage and traveling by bus from Virginia to Baltimore for a doctor’s appointment, refused to give up her seat to a white couple.

Angered by the refusal, the bus driver drove the bus to the Middlesex County town of Saluda and stopped outside the jail. A sheriff’s deputy came aboard and told Morgan that he had a warrant for her arrest. She continued to refuse and police had to physically subdue her. Authorities jailed her for resisting arrest and violating Virginia’s segregation law.

Because interstate travel came under the auspices of the federal government, civil rights lawyers challenged Morgan’s later conviction. On June 3, 1946, in Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia, the US Supreme Court (6 – 1) ruled in favor of Morgan declaring that  segregated seating on interstate buses an “impermissible burden on interstate commerce.”  

Mary Louise Smith Ware

Claudette Colvin

Few know the name Claudette Colvin, but on March 2, 1955 the 15-year-old Colvin boarded a city bus after school to head home. As it filled up, a white woman was left standing, and the bus driver ordered Colvin to get up and move to the back. She refused. Police dragged Colvin off the bus in handcuffs.

Mary Louise Smith Ware

Mary Louise Smith

On October 21, 1955 police arrested 18-year-old Mary Louise Smith for violating segregation laws in Montgomery, Ala. She had refused to change her bus seat.

Her father bailed her out of jail and paid the nine-dollar fine. The incident was initially known only to family and neighbors. Nothing more was said or done about it.

At first.

Mary Louise Smith Ware

Rosa Parks

Of course, most of us know that Rosa Parks, considered the godmother of the Civil Rights Movement, did the same thing on December 1, 1955. Parks certainly deserves that honored recognition.

Mary Louise Smith Ware

Browder v. Gayle

On February 1, 1956, attorney Fred Gray and other attorneys filed a civil suit, Browder v Gayle in the US District Court, challenging state and local laws on bus segregation. Mary Louise Smith was one of the five plaintiffs. Others included Aurelia Browder, Claudette Colvin, Susie McDonald, and Jeanette Reese. Reese soon left the case because of intimidation.

Ironically, the case did not include Rosa Parks herself. Gray had made the decision to avoid the perception that the defendants were seeking to circumvent Parks’s prosecution on other charges. Gray ‘‘wanted the court to have only one issue to decide—the constitutionality of the laws requiring segregation on the buses’’

The women testified before a three-judge panel. On June 13, 1956 the court ruled that the laws were unconstitutional, based on equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Montgomery and Alabama appealed the case and eventually the US Supreme court took the case. 

On November 13, 1956, the US Supreme Court affirmed the lower court’s ruling and on December 17, it declined an appeal by the city and state to reconsider, and on December 20 ordered the state to desegregate its buses.

This final decision ended the Montgomery Bus Boycott that had begun with Rosa Parks refusal and with Rosa Parks as the figurehead of the subsequent boycott. 

Mary Louise Smith Ware

Mrs Ware

Smith married a Mr. Ware and they had four children together. They later divorced. Smith Ware continued to work for civil rights such as for voting rights before the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, and participated in the March on Washington in 1963. Her sister Annie’s son was a plaintiff in the lawsuit to desegregate the Y.M.C.A. Smith is active with her 12 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She enjoys reading, and she is active in several of her church auxiliaries and senior citizen clubs. When Rosa Parks died in October 2005, Smith Ware, then 68, attended the memorial service in Montgomery. “I had to pay my tribute to her,” Ware said. “She was our role model.”

Here is a link to a 2013 Democracy Now piece on all these heroic women.

In the comments below, William Waheed refers to a YouTube video he  helped put together. It is called “More Than A Bus Ride Documentary”

Historic Marker

The Smiths: A Civil Rights Family Marker

On May 19, 2023 the Greater Washington Park Community Association (GWPCA) in Montgomery, AL paid tribute to Smith alongside family members with a long-awaited historical marker in Montgomery.

The unveiling took place at Mary Louise’s childhood home and read:

In this house, built in 1948, Frank and Alberta Smith raised their six children. Through their activism and participation in two landmark suits, members of the Smith family played critical roles in the Civil Rights Movement. The family attended St. Jude Catholic Church. The children were all graduates of the St. Jude Educational Institute. After Alberta Smith died in 1952, Frank Smith worked multiple jobs to provide for his family. He never remarried. The eldest daughter. Janie Smith James, became a surrogate mother to her siblings.

On October 21, 1955, weeks before Rosa Park’s arrest, Mary Louise Smith was jailed for violating Montgomery’s segregated bus ordinance after refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger. Months later, amidst the ongoing Montgomery Bus Boycott, Frank Smith consented for his teenage daughter to become one of four named plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle. The federal lawsuit brought by the Montgomery Improvement Association challenged the ordinance as a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. On June 5, 1956, the U.S. District Court sided with the plaintiffs. The U.S. Supreme Court later affirmed the ruling, bringing to a close two generations of law upholding the constitutionality of segregation. The suit brought about the end of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Mary Louise Smith Ware
Black history

Autherine J Lucy Foster

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Autherine J Lucy Foster

October 5, 1929 – March 2, 2022

Autherine Lucy was born in Shiloh, Alabama and She  began classes at the University of Alabama on…

February 3, 1956
She was the first Black person to ever do so.
Autherine J Lucy Foster
Autherine J Lucy

The name Autherine Lucy was not in my childhood  history books. I hope her name is in them today, but am not sure about that. Rosa Parks, deservedly so, is and is perhaps the main Black female name in those books. Sojourner Truth, too.

Just as Claudette Colvin refusal to give up her seat on a bus had preceded Rosa Parks,  Autherine Lucy’s struggle to attend a “White” university preceded James Meredith’s.

Autherine J Lucy Foster

Selma University

In 1947 Autherine Lucy attended Selma University for two years, then she studied at the all-black Miles College. She graduated from Miles with a BA in English in 1952.

In September 1952, Lucy and a friend, Pollie Myers applied to the University of Alabama. Both were accepted. Then school authorities discovered they were not white and their acceptances were rescinded.

Autherine J Lucy Foster

Lucy et al. v. ADAMS

Backed by the NAACP, Lucy and Myers charged the University of Alabama with racial discrimination in a court case that took almost three years to resolve. 

On June 29, 1955, the NAACP secured a court order preventing the University from rejecting the admissions.  The Dean of Admissions of the University of Alabama fought the court order.

On August 25, 1955, the United States District Court N. D. Alabama, W. D. decided for Lucy. In their decision they stated that, “Plaintiffs are entitled to a decree enjoining the defendant, William F. Adams, his servants, agents, assistants and employees, and those who might aid, abet, and act in concert with him, from denying the plaintiffs and others similarly situated the right to enroll in the University of Alabama and pursue courses of study thereat, solely on account of their race and color.”

The University appealed to the US Supreme Court, but on October 10, 1955, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s decision to admit Autherine Lucy and Pollie Ann Meyers.

Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote for the majority, The injunction which the District Court issued in this case, but suspended pending appeal to the Court of Appeals, is reinstated to the extent that it enjoins and restrains the respondent and others designated from denying these petitioners, solely on account of their race or color, the right to enroll in the University of Alabama and pursue courses of study there. The motion is denied.

Autherine J Lucy Foster

Attempts to begin school

February 2, 1956 the University of Alabama Board of Trustees rejected the now-married Polly Myers Hudson on the grounds of her “conduct and marital record” (Hudson had had a child before marrying). The Trustees likely hoped Lucy would not attend without a friend to be with.

Finally on February 3, 1956 26-year-old  Lucy enrolled as a graduate student in library science. She was the first African American ever admitted to a white public school or university in Alabama.

But on February 4, 1956 New York Times article reported: Resentment over the first Negro student at the University of Alabama exploded today in a shouting demonstration of 1,000 man students. A car occupied by Negroes was damaged.

Autherine J Lucy Foster
Roy Wilkins in press conference with Autherine Lucy and Thurgood Marshall, director and special counsel for NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund].” 1956 March 2. Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress.
Autherine J Lucy Foster

Mob

A mob had assembled to prevent Autherine Lucy from attending classes. She was struck by eggs while being escorted across the campus and windows of the car in which she rode were smashed. Highway patrol officers slipped her away at the height of the demonstration when more than 3,000 students and others were on the campus.

Autherine J Lucy Foster

Editorial supports States Rights

That same day, the Augusta Chronicle ran an editorial, saying that the tragedy was not that Lucy was being denied her rights, but rather that the courts were usurping states’ rights by interfering with the University of Alabama’s admittance policy. The editorial concluded:

It is nothing less than tragic that the Supreme Court has furnished both the dynamite and the match by usurping the power of the various states to operate their schools, and other public facilities, in a manner best fitted to the needs and the welfare of all of their people. For this the court must bear the onus for ushering in an unhappy and tragic era in our history whereas before its decision, all was going well.

The next day, February 7, “The University of Alabama’s first Negro student was ordered excluded until further notice late last night for the “safety” of herself and other students and faculty members.” 

And on January 18, 1957 Federal Judge Hobart H. Grooms ruled that University of Alabama officials were justified in expelling Autherine Lucy Foster and in March she stopped her struggle to attend.

Lucy became a high school English teacher.

Autherine J Lucy Foster

Justice delayed …

In April 1988, the university board overturned her expulsion. She re-enrolled in 1989 and in 1992 received her Masters in Elementary Education.  The same day, her daughter, Grazia Foster received a bachelor’s degree in corporate finance. Grazi was one of 1,755 blacks among the 18,096 students on campus. (NYT article)

Marker

On September 15, 2017, the University of Alabama unveiled an historic marker honoring Autherine Lucy Foster. (Wall St Journal article).

She began her speech by saying, ““To the student body and to all of you standing around, I want you to know that the last time I saw a crowd like this at the University of Alabama . . .”

Irony Defined

February 3, 2022: in an amazingly ironic declaration, the University of Alabama renamed its Graves Hall to Lucy-Graves Hall. Bibb Graves was a former Alabama governor and an officer of the Ku Klux Klan. [Crimson White article]

According to a CBS42 article, a University of Alabama board member Judge John England said, ““On the one hand, Gov. Graves is regarded by historians as one of, if not the most, progressive and effective governors in the history of the state of Alabama, Some say he did more to directly benefit African American Alabamians than any other governor through his many reforms. Unfortunately, that same Gov. Graves was associated with the Ku Klux Klan. Not just associated with the Ku Klux Klan, but a Grand Cyclops. It’s hard for me to even say those words.”

Emulating the view that “When they go low, we go high,”  Autherine Lucy Foster said she doesn’t mind having her name next to Graves’.

“Everybody can change,” she said. “Maybe he changed before he left this world.”

Irony Recognized

February 11, 2022: the University of Alabama reversed course and decided to remove Klansman’s Gov. Graves name and honor only Autherine Lucy on what was Graves Hall. [AL.com article]

Less than a month later, Ms Lucy died on March 2, 2022. [NYT article]

Autherine J Lucy Foster
Black history, Today in history

Izola Curry Stabs MLK

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Izola Curry Stabs MLK

20 September 1958

Izola Curry Stabs MLK

Martin Luther King, Jr

Boomers remember the day that James Earl Ray assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr. 1968 had begun with the disillusioning Tet Offensive and June 5 brought Sirhan Sirhan’s assassination of Robert Kennedy on the night RFK had mostly wrapped up the Democratic Party’s nomination for president.

When Ray assassinated King, it didn’t bring surprise or shock so much as worry and wonder. When would the violence end?

Izola Curry Stabs MLK

1958 book signing

Martin Luther King, Jr (29 years old) was in New York City signing copies of his recently published book, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story in Blumstein’s department store. Izola Ware Curry was on line with others who were waiting for King to sign a copy of the book.

Izola Ware Curry was a woman with mental illness. The illness prevented her from holding a job. She moved regularly in hopes of finding a permanent job and living in a permanent location.

Izola Curry Stabs MLK

Officer Howard

When she came up to King she asked him if he was Martin Luther King, Jr. When King replied yes, she said, “I’ve been looking for you for five years,” then stabbed him in the chest with a steel letter opener.

NYPD officers Al Howard (31 and on the force for 3 years) and Phil Romano (a rookie) responded.  Someone wanted to pull out the opener, but very luckily for King, Howard told her not to and told King, “Don’t sneeze, don’t even speak.”

Cops didn’t carry radios at the time and so Howard had to use a phone.  There was also a crowd issue. Howard devised a plan. He announced that people must clear a path to the front door and began to move in that direction, but Officer Romano and other carried King out the back door to an ambulance.

At the Harlem Hospital, chief of thoracic and vascular surgery John W. V. Cordice, Jr., and trauma surgeon Emil Naclerio [who had been attending a wedding and arrived still in a tuxedo] were the first to treat King. They  inserted a rib spreader, making King’s aorta visible.

Izola Curry Stabs MLK

Aubre de Lambert Maynard

Chief of Surgery Aubre de Lambert Maynard then entered and attempted to pull out the letter opener, but cut his glove on the blade; a surgical clamp was finally used to remove it.

While it may seem that a letter opener is not necessarily a very dangerous weapon, had Curry’s thrust gone any deeper it would have hit King’s aorta and likely killed him.

Izola Curry Stabs MLK

Aftermath

When King later spoke of the incident, he sometimes told about how many letter of encouragement he’d received. Even from President Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon. But he typically spoke about a letter that a high school student from White Plains, NY sent: 

Dear Dr. King,

I am a ninth-grade student at the White Plains High School. While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I’m a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I’m simply writing you to say that I’m so happy that you didn’t sneeze.

With gallows humor, King always closed the telling by saying, “And I’m glad I didn’t sneeze, too.” He  referred to the letter the day before Ray assassinated him.

Izola Curry Stabs MLK

Indictment

A grand jury indicted Isola Curry, but psychiatrists found her too ill to be responsible for her actions. She first went to Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, near Poughkeepsie, N.Y. She remained there for some 14 years. She was later institutionalized for about a year at the Manhattan Psychiatric Center on Wards Island, in the East River. She lived in a series of residential-care homes before entering a nursing home in Queens, NY.

She died there on March 7, 2015 with no known relatives. (NYT obit)

Izola Curry Stabs MLK

Showman’s

When Howard retired, he and his partner Mona Lopez took over the Showman’s jazz club, now located  at 375 West 125th Street in Harlem. They ran it for nearly 39 years until COVID shut down so much.

In September 2020, Howard and Lopez flew to Las Vegas, a regular trip for them, but on the way home Howard fell sick. It was COVID and he died on October 21 . His funeral was held October 27 at J. Foster Phillips Funeral Home in Jamaica Queens. He was buried at The Evergreens Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

Izola Curry Stabs MLK

PDF NYT article: MLK stabbed

Link to expanded story about Officer Howard.

Amsterdam News obituary for Howard

Izola Curry Stabs MLK