Black History
Honoring Women of the Civil Rights Movement
History and today’s social media platforms are joining forces to tell the story of the women in the Civil Rights Movement. Familiar names like Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, Ella Baker, and Daisy Bates have been part of the roll call for years, and now Georgia Gilmore and others are being recognized.
“The men are often shown at the forefront in images of the Movement, but the Movement would not have been possible without the work of women,” Dr. Shenette Garrett-Scott says.
Garrett-Scott, an associate professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Mississippi, states that Ella Baker’s influence is well-known, adding “she is widely recognized as an architect of SNCC’s (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) direct action protests.”
Rosa Parks’ great niece, Urana McCauley, shared her memories of the beloved icon who refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus with a writer for the website created by Hollywood producer, Shonda Rimes. In the Shondaland op-ed, McCauley described Park’s lifelong commitment to civil rights as “as a passion she felt in her soul.”
Montgomery’s bus boycott brought the culinary gifts of Georgia Gilmore into the spotlight. National Public Radio and The New York Times have profiled Gilmore’s grass-roots activism as helping to sustain the year-long boycott. Gilmore raised money by selling food at boycott meetings.
And, there were others who worked tirelessly and courageously to advance a cause they believed in for themselves and future generations.
Garrett-Scott adds, “They provided critical work both behind the scenes and on the front lines. They arranged transportation, prepared food, and distributed fliers.”
The Social Justice Gene
Kansas Citian Cecelia Belser-Patton recently paid homage to her grandmother, Frances Belser, another one of the brave and dedicated women in Montgomery during the boycott.
“She helped to HANDWRITE the flyers announcing the Montgomery Bus Boycott & delivered them across the city with her friends & co-conspirators,” Belser-Patton wrote on her Facebook page. “She poured into the people of Montgomery, Alabama as a secretary of Holt St. Baptist Church; she mentored young women at the HBCU Alabama St. She and my grandfather, Caesar Belser, Sr. raised two college graduates, my father and my aunt, their only children. She was sweet & spicy, she was smart, she was kind, she was beautyFULL, and she was funny…I loved her laugh.”
Social media posts similar to the one written by Belser-Patton, who much like her grandmother is actively involved in social justice work, and news reports featuring previously unknown women add context to the role of women during the Civil Rights Movement.
“They also organized and trained protestors,” explains Garrett-Scott. “They plotted strategy, provided meeting spaces away from white surveillance, and raised money.”
And, in the words of Frances Belser’s proud granddaughter, we “will never forget.”
In Arkansas a formerly all-Black school, Ouachita County Training School, has launched a national fundraising effort to restore the campus following its designation as a site on the National Register of Historic Places. One of the first corporate donations to OCTS, located in Bearden, Arkansas, came from the Katherine Anthony Foundation.
Anthony’s nephew, Steve, and CEO of Anthony Timberlands, presented a $10,000 check to the historic committee.
“We are happy to support the work of the Greater Bradley District Association and the Ouachita County Training School committee in their efforts to maintain the infrastructure and grounds of the training school, which is such an important part of the Bearden community,” Anthony said.
The National Park Service listed OCTS on the prestigious register in 2023.
“Since we received the news, we have been excited and motivated to raise the fund necessary to preserve this part of our history!” Virginia Ashley, committee president said. “We recognize the pivotal role OCTS played in educating several generations of young people who started right here and went on to contribute greatly to the Black middle class and the world.”
The gift of education
For education advocates, December holds a special place in American history. During the Christmas Season in 1952, the Supreme Court first heard arguments to eliminate segregation in the nation’s public schools. But, it took two more years before the Court issued its landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, declaring segregation unconstitutional.
During the 1950s, OCTS educated Black students in the small southern town south of Little Rock, which became known internationally for The Little Rock Nine and their efforts to integrate Central High School. In Bearden, several Rosenwald Schools had consolidated to create the larger OCTS campus that educated students from the first through the 12th grades.
“I have such wonderful memories of my days as a student at OCTS,” recalled Pearlie Newton, a retired educator and executive director of the OCTS historic committee. “My dad helped pour concrete at the campus, my husband and I met there and it was in one of the classrooms that my goal to become an educator took shape.”
Despite the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision eliminating “separate but equal” schools, OCTS remained segregated until 1971 when it merged with the white school district in the area. An association of Black Baptist churches known as the Greater Bradley District Association purchased the campus for use as its headquarters.
Pastor and Association Moderator, Verna Thompson, said, “We are excited about the renovation and look forward to holding our church services and meetings in a modernized facility that holds so much historic significance.”
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