Jo Ann Gibson Robinson Reflection

Jo Ann Gibson Robinson's account of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the events that led up to it really opened my eyes to the recency of such unjust treatment towards an entire racial group. The latent racism that exists within America today seems so antiquated and intolerable, yet it is nothing compared with the disrespectful public policies that abounded in this country within the last 60 years. That these policies still existed in Montgomery and other places over a year after the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision came down displays an atrocious set of societal values for having let this remain the status quo.

When Gibson Robinson discusses the cases of mistreatment towards Blacks on the Montgomery city buses, especially Black women, it seems amazing that this sort of behavior was ever accepted. When I consider the fact that the seating arrangements of the city buses appear to have existed simply to keep Black people "in their place" behind Whites, I cannot believe that a majority of the city's population never came together to expose this race-relations travesty before the WPC finally organized an all-out boycott. It is embarrassing that it took such severe action before anyone did anything about this situation that denigrated all Black people.