In this file photo dated May 15, 1961, a bus carrying Freedom Riders leaves the train station as they continue their journeys south in Montgomery, Ala. Photo: Associated Press (AP)
Lucille Times, a Montgomery civil rights legend, has died at the age of 100.
Times is known for having a fist fight with a bus driver in 1955. This bus driver was supposed to be driving the same bus Rosa Parks was in just six months later.
Corresponding WSFA 12 news, her nephew Daniel Nichols confirmed that The Times passed away late Monday night.
From WSFA:
Times was not arrested, but the ordeal caused her to begin her own boycott of the buses and she made it her business to change things. Later, when the Montgomery bus boycott began, she continued what she had been doing for months; Pick up waiting black passengers she saw at bus stops.
Parks’ arrest in December would propel her into history and make her name synonymous with the struggle for civil rights. But the Times remained relatively obscure to the masses for more than half a century, despite being locally known.
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Times confronted the driver after attempting to get their car off the road, according to WSFA reporting. She was a pillar of their community and received the Unsung Hero Award in 2017 for her involvement in the civil rights movement in Montgomery.
Refinery29 reported that The Times and her husband Charlie attended the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March. After the march, they opened their home for 18 people from all over the land of all races to spend the night.
The Times also owned the popular Times Cafe, where Martin Luther King Jr. and his colleagues planned the Montgomery bus boycott that made Rosa Parks a household name. They were active members of the NAACP and founded many local organizations and clubs. In 2007, the house in which they have lived since 1939 became a historic landmark.
According to WSFA, she held a meet and greet at the Rosa Parks Museum in 2017 after an interview with her longtime friend, former Alabama Attorney General Troy King, went viral on Facebook. Last February was the Times honored at the ED Nixon-Lucille Times Community Garden in Montgomery. She was reportedly unable to attend herself due to COVID-19 precautions.
From WSFA:
A public viewing will take place on Saturday from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Phillips-Riley Funeral Home in Montgomery. Funeral services will be held on Sunday at 1 p.m. by St. Jude Catholic Church, under the direction of Father Andrew Jones. The burial takes place in the Oakwood Annex Cemetery.
Times celebrated its 100th birthday last April.
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