She is best known for launching a boycott of Montgomery city buses six months before Rosa Parks was arrested
Civil rights activist in Montgomery Lucille times died on Monday evening at the age of 100.
Her death was confirmed by her nephew Daniel Nichols to the WSFA.
Times is best known for boycotting city buses in Montgomery six months earlier Rosa Parks was known to be arrested for refusing to leave her seat to a white male passenger.
(Photo credit: University of Troy)
Times began their own boycott of buses in 1955 after having engaged in a fist fight. was advised James F. Blake – The same Montgomery bus driver who told Parks to give up their seat on his bus.
“I started the Montgomery bus boycott,” the Times said in 2017 during A Conversation with Lucille Times at the Rosa Parks Museum.
“The bus driver got angry and tried to push me off the street into a ditch,” said Times. The incident resulted in a verbal confrontation in which she laid hands on the man and two Montgomery police officers had to separate the two.
Times was not arrested, but the incident inspired them to take action.
“I called the bus office three times to report James Blake, but the bus company owner never called me back. The next day I started the bus boycott, ”she said.
From there, the Times began transporting black Montgomery residents waiting at bus stops. When the Montgomery bus boycott officially began, others went along with what she had been doing for months. As the Times ‘efforts fell into disuse, Parks’ Defiance catapulted them into history.
Parks changed the course of history, starting the civil rights movement on December 1, 1955 when she refused to relinquish her seat on a public bus to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. That date is now considered Rosa Parks Day in recognition of her act of defiance, TheGRIO previously reported.
Parks was a seamstress on her way home from work when she took a seat in the front of the black section of the Montgomery bus. The 42-year-old was then instructed by the driver to give her seat to a white man when the bus was overcrowded. It was empowered by law that gave the driver “the powers of a city police officer while actually running a bus for the purpose of enforcing the rules,” which enforced “separate but equal” treatment.
The story goes on
Parks refused to get on the back of the bus and was arrested for misconduct.
“For us today it is difficult to imagine what kind of treatment African Americans, especially African American women, had to endure during this time,” said the director of the Rosa Parks Museum, Dr. Felicia Bell said beforehand. “There were many people who played a role in the events leading up to the Montgomery Bus boycott. We are grateful that Mrs. Times shared her story with us so that we can share it with others. “
“You have to fight … you have to fight,” Times said, shaking his fist in the air. “You don’t get anything for free. I’ve been a fighter all my life. “
(Photo credit: WSFA 12 News / Screenshot)
One user wrote, “Not all heroes wear capes or seek recognition, but Ms. Lucille Times deserves her due credit for starting the fight for equality and civil rights for every black American.”
Another wrote: “We have heard all our lives that Rosa Parks told the bus driver she was not moving, but they never taught us anything about the black lady who walked right into the same bus driver six months earlier has tucked his pants. I wonder why. “
Times and her husband Charlie took part in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March. As reported by WSFA 12 News, the couple were members of the NAACP and founding members of several organizations and clubs. Their home, where they had lived since 1939, has been on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage since 2007.
In February 2017, the Times won the Unsung Hero Award in Montgomery, according to the report.
A public viewing is scheduled for August 20th at the Phillips-Riley Funeral Home in Montgomery. The funeral is due to take place on Sunday afternoon in the Catholic Church of St. Jude. The burial takes place in the Oakwood Annex Cemetery.
* This story includes additional accounts from theGRIO’s Stephanie Guerilus.
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The post civil rights activist Lucille Times Dies at the Age of 100 first appeared on TheGrio.
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