ho
e boyco
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stimulated dialog on the
isssue, the heels were set
into motion for unifying the
Black community.
A full year and a half
before the historic boycott ac
tually began, the WPC sent a
letter to city officials protest
ing the conditions on the
tansportation system and they
threatened a boycott if the
conditions were not improved.
The Women's Council had
even done a study linking the
incidence of Black-on-Black
crime in the Montgomery com
munity to the abuses and indig
nities suffered by Black
people on the transportation
system. It was this group
which provided the vital initial
communication system which
permitted the boycott too get
underway once the Rose
Parks arrest was made.
Robinson presents a wealth
of historical material through
very personal incidents about
the people who carried out
the boycott. She tells what
they talked about as they rode
in the cabs describes the long
distances many laborers had
to walk in order to get to their
jobs. She gives a detailed ac
count of the cruel harrassment
which the walkers suffered
and of the bitter persecution
which whites received who
were actively supportive of the
boycott. She describes how
the boycott affected all
aspects of life in the Black
community, such as the way a
Black grocer was forced to
close his business because
producers refused to supply
him. She also relates a number
of instances showing how,
when the Movement would
reach its weakest point, some
thing would happen to unite
them again.
This book, filled with
stories of courage and inspira-
tion, belongs on the family
bookshelf along with Martin
Luther King's Stride Toward
Freedom. Together, they tell a
full and well-rounded story of
the historic Montgomery Bus
Boycott.
Dorothy
Robin 0
Reading
Together
History has a way of shrink
ing gigantic events down to a
very tiny size. Something
which happened involving
hundreds and thousands of
people becomes summed up
into a few courageous actions
taken by few heroic figures.
Such is the case with the
Montgomery Bus Boycott.
The names Rosa Parks and
Martin Luther King certainly
deserve to be written large in
this historic event, but there
were also hundreds of people
who played significant roles
and made great sacrifices to
make this boycott what it was.
The Montgomery Bus
boycott and the Women Who
Started It by Jo Ann Gibson
Robinson (University of Ten
n e Pr ,1987) shows the
role pi yed by many people
h nam we will never
know, d especially by a
group of BI c women of
ontgomery ho formed an
organization called the
Women's Political Council.
Though many Blac people
in Montgomery had broken
the rigid rule of segregation
by sitting in a seat which was
not assigned to Blacks, their
arrests did not pull together a
massive boycott because the
machinery for mobilizing the
Blac community w simply
not there. ut when JoAnn
Robinson was humiliated by a
.. city bus driver, she brought it
to the attention of the
omen' Political Council
and from there, Black people
began openly discussing the
buses on the transportation
tem which they all had ex
perienced. Once the WPC had
· zen
OOdward
MI 48203
3131869-0033
Offt
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Semon Harbor, 49022
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PhOne:
1 -445-NEWS
•
I
By Wright Edelman
On the steps of a dilapidated
building, amidst the noise and
bustle of a city street, a small boy
sits crying. He is poor, he is
Black, and has has no home.
In his short life, he has al
ready seen so much. He has
been through room after dingy
room in one rundown hotel after
another, walked their dark cor
ridors and ridden the crowded
buses that shuttle homeless
families like his to their next
place of shelter for the night. He
has seen, without yet knowing
what they are, pimps and pros
titutes and drug dealers.
He has felt the sting of
neglect. His mother, who tries to
care for her children, is dis
traught, exhausted, over
whelmed by stress. He and his
brothers and sisters play in the
street, making toys out of the
trash they find in the gutter or on
the sidewalks. There is no room
for toys in the suitcases and bags
that hold the family'S few
belongings.
southern town of Conroe,
Texas?
That is, indeed, the question.
For, evidence presented at a
recent judicial hearing indicates
that Mr. Brandley's case was
handled in a blatantly raci t
manner. Key evidence was lost
or thrown away, there is strong
indication of collusion between
the prosecutor and the judge,
and one the prosecution's own
witne es has now confirmed
the r cial overtones nrround
ing the arrest. He te� that a
There are so many things that
this boy has never seen. He does
not know what it is to have a bed,
much less a room, to himself. He
cannot remember what it is to sit
down at a table and eat a family
dinner. He has never had a story
read to him at bedtime. He has
never stayed any place long
enough to make friends.
All across this country, in
cities, towns and rural areas, the
numbers of homeless children
like him are increasing. More
and more American children
are growing up not just in want
but lacking even the most basic
anchor: a place to call home.
. Many recent studies tell us
that the homeless are growing
and that more d more of them
are families with chidren.
Children who grow up adrift
may never find their bearings.
The legacy of their early ex
periences - in teenage pregnan
cy, drug abuse, poverty - will be
costly for them and for us.
Surely our rich nation can af
ford to ensure that every child
Marian
Wright
Edelman
CHILD
WATCH
has a place to call home. For
those families that are already
homeless, we can offer decent
shelter and the help parents
need to find a job and a new
place to live.
For the many who are one job
loss or eviction away from
homeliness, we can provide the
emergency help they need to
avoid that fate. And, in the long
term, most importantly, we must
work toward the day that every
American family will be able to
afford a decent home.
Marian Wright Edelman is
president of the Children's
Defense Fund, a national voice
for children.
derer; they was trying to convict
Clarence Brandley." ot supris
ing when you consider that there
are 94 Texas Rangers in the state
of Texas and all of them are
white. Or that, as the e Yor
times noted, Conroe has" his
tory of ugly racial incidents.
Both the Ne Yor Times
and "60 Minutes" have do ex
tensive pieces on Brandley
case. However ,it a tho
crusading B press of Ho -
ton and the unified support 0
C 17
'Capital punishmen - Texas style ... ....
By Beoj .c , Jr.
Clarence Brandley is a 36-
year old African American. He
has been on death row in Texas
since February 1981 and has es
caped two execution dates by
the s in of his teeth, most
recently in March of this year.
When the Brandley case w
presented before Congo John
Conyers's Subcommittee on
Criminal Justice earlier this year
the Congressman raised this
question: Can a young Black
man r:eceive justice in the small
Conroe police officer said of
Brandley before his arrest,
"You're the nigger; you're
elected."
The case is based on a 1980
assault and murder of a white
female student at a high school
in Conroe, Texas.
The investigating Texas
Ranger spent 500 hours on the
case. But, according to Atty.
Paul Nugent, a member of
Brandley's defense team, "The
Ranger and other investigators
were not trying to find the mur-