How Did Jo Ann Robinson Influence The Women's Rights Movement

One of the women in history that helped set the Boycott into motion was Jo Ann Robinson, a member of the WPC. The WPC, Women’s Political Council, is an influential organization of African American teachers, nurses, social workers, and other professional women who worked to advance black community interests. Jo Ann Robinson had seen unjustified treatment on buses first hand. She had witnessed black passengers, mainly women, suffering abuse from white bus drivers. Members of the WPC had protested before but nothing seemed to help. In 1949 Robinson was verbally attacked by a white bus driver for sitting in the white section. She made up her mind then that she would do everything in her power to try and challenge the city’s segregated bus seating

The segregated seating on public buses became her main concern. They asked for “better seating arrangements” and black drivers. The white people replied that segregation was required by city and state laws on buses. Then, on May 17, 1954, the Montgomery Advertiser carried a headline declaring that segregation in the nation’s public schools was unconstitutional. The ruling had no immediate effect. Many African Americans believed the principle applied to other segregated places, such as public transportation. This was a real chance to challenge the segregation laws (Freedman

She was a student at an all black school, Booker T, Washington.” Claudette was on her way home from school that day. She found a seat in the middle of the bus, behind the section reserved for whites. As more riders got on, the bus filled up until there was no empty seats left. The aisle was jammed with passengers standing, mostly blacks and a few whites. The driver stopped the bus and ordered black passengers seated behind the white section to get up and move farther back, making more seats available for whites” (Freedman 15). Many blacks gave up their seats right away. Claudette however didn’t move a muscle. She knew she wasn’t in the white section. When police arrived she said,” It’s my constitutional right to sit here just as much as that [white] lady.” Under Montgomery segregation laws, if no seats were available for white passengers, then blacks were not required to give up their seats for them. But in reality drivers made blacks move all the time for whites (Freedman