Civil Rights Narrative

754 Words4 Pages
Today was a very eventful day in Montgomery, Alabama. I was coming home from my downtown office at the NAACP or The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. I had just finished trying to get a workshop together for the association when I boarded a bus not even thinking to look at the bus driver until it was too late to get off. It was the bus driver that I had a run in with a couple years ago, involving me to getting at the front and demanding me to go to the back and get on. The same old, tall, mean-looking, rough skinned, bus driver. I saw a seat in the front of the colored section and sat there with my coats and purse. I am not a very big person and only 42 years old. A stubborn person I was. I was thinking about the…show more content…
Only a small “crime” where we could take it to a higher court. As I pondered that, little to my notice the bus was filling up with more white passengers, and pretty soon there were no more seats in the white section. I remember the bus driver getting up and telling me and a couple other blacks to let him have our seats. The others got up, but I remained seated. He told me to get up, but I said, “No”. He told me was going to have me arrested and I said again. I was tired of getting pushed around by white people. It wasn’t long till the squad car came and picked me up off the bus and brought me to City Hall. The police officer asked me a couple of questions on the way, but I didn’t say anything. I was only custody not arrestested. When we got to City Hall I filled out the forms and answered the common questions. After that I was taken to the city jail and was guided into a cell with two other women. I remember the cell being damp with a small white toilet in the corner and couple of beds against the wall. I asked the warden if I could use the phone and she said I couldn’t. After a couple of minutes one of the women spoke up and asked what I was doing…show more content…
She told me about how she had a couple of brothers, but they didn’t know she was in jail. I felt bad for her. After a couple minutes the warden came back and told me to come with her. She directed me to the telephone booth and gave me a dime to call someone. I called home and my mother answered asked if I was if I was ok and what happened. I told her I had refused to get off the bus and that was how I had winded up in jail. I told her to grab my husband Raymond and have him come and bail me out. I knew he would because he worked for the NAACP just like me and was an active civil rights activist. He is quite handsome, he is lighter than me and a little older than me. As I went back to my cell I kept the pen in which the warden gave me to write down the number of the lady's brother to have him come and bail her out. I gave the lady the pen and she had a piece of paper which she wrote one of her brothers numbers down. The warden then came and got me and took me to my husband and Mr. E.D. Nixon and my friend Attorney Durr. Apparently they had risen the bail which had gotten me out of here. I was given the trial date of December 5, on a Monday. When we got home Mr. Nixon asked me a
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