Women’s Political Council

Women’s Political Council, organization that was established for African American professional women in Montgomery, Alabama, U.S., and that became known for its role in initiating the Montgomery bus boycott (1955–56). The Women’s Political Council was founded in 1946 by American educator Mary Fair Burks, then an English professor at Alabama State College (later Alabama State University) in Montgomery who wanted to improve the situation of African American citizens in the city. The council initially was composed primarily of Montgomery public school teachers and college professors who encouraged voter registration, organized adult and youth education programs, and sought to include African Americans in local civic groups.

In the early 1950s the Women’s Political Council, under the leadership of Jo Ann Robinson, another English professor at Alabama State, met regularly with city officials to discuss the poor quality of Montgomery’s segregated parks and the mistreatment of African American bus riders. In 1953 Robinson and other African American leaders in the community presented three complaints to this committee: (1) African American patrons were forced to stand by empty white-only seats; (2) there were fewer stops in African American neighbourhoods than in white neighbourhoods; and (3) African American patrons were expected to pay fares at the front of the bus, then exit the bus and reenter at the rear to take their seats. The meeting with city officials failed to generate change. However, Robinson persisted, and in March 1954 officials with the bus company agreed to increase the number of bus stops in African American neighbourhoods.

Community frustration continued to grow, however, and in May 1954 Robinson wrote a letter to Mayor W.A. Gayle politely reiterating the problem and indicating that support for a boycott of city buses was increasing. In March 1955, when 15-year-old African American Claudette Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus, the Women’s Political Council helped to arrange further meetings among black leaders, the bus company, and city officials. The council also made arrangements for a boycott. Implementation of the plans was postponed, however, until council members could ensure widespread community support. They continued to meet with officials through 1955.

In December 1955, following the arrest of African American civil rights activist Rosa Parks, who committed the same offense as Colvin, Robinson and the Women’s Political Council, which had grown to three chapters and nearly 300 members, decided to act. Robinson drafted flyers calling for a boycott on Monday, December 5—the day of Parks’s trial. With the help of an Alabama State faculty member and two students, Robinson mimeographed and distributed 50,000 of the flyers throughout the city. With the success and continuation of the boycott, leaders established an organization to manage it: the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). Women’s Political Council members held all four paid staff positions of the MIA. In addition to facilitating daily management of the boycott, Women’s Political Council leaders, particularly Robinson, were central in boycott negotiations.

With desegregation of city buses and the boycott’s end in December 1956, the Women’s Political Council continued to operate with increased efforts to foster activism among young African American women. By 1960, however, because of an investigation by a state committee of persons involved in the boycott and because of increased racial tensions at Alabama State College, key members of the council, including Burks and Robinson, resigned their college teaching positions and left Montgomery.