A family reunion to commemorate the Montgomery Bus Boycott

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On a recent Friday night, a banquet hall tucked inside of Alabama State University’s Acadome in Montgomery filled with music, lively chatter and a buffet of food. People across generations sat together at circular tables, and a dance floor hosted a line of chairs. 

It was a family reunion, although not everyone was related by blood. Those chairs would later be filled by people with the last names of King, Abernathy and Young – names synonymous with civil rights. 

This month marked the 70th anniversary of the historic Montgomery Bus Boycott. The demonstration was catalyzed when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus. The boycott lasted over a year and is considered a spark of the Civil Rights Movement. 

The family reunion on December 5 was hosted by the Southern Youth Leadership Development Institute, which was established by Doris Crenshaw in 2008. 

Crenshaw was 12 years old at the time of the boycott. She served as the vice president of the NAACP’s youth chapter. On December 5, 1955, she and her sister Jamila Jones passed flyers out in their neighborhood that held information about the boycott in Montgomery.

Jones was a member of the Montgomery Gospel Trio. During the reunion she stood tall, and proud in the middle of the dance floor and burst into one of the first original songs of the Civil Rights Movement, “Ain’t Gonna Ride No Bus No More.”

The reunion was a gathering of individuals who were affiliated with the boycott – organizers, activists and their descendants. For some attendees, the reunion was their first known link to the historic action in Montgomery. 

The children of Alfonso Campbell, Alfonso Campbell, Jr. and his sister Sharon Campbell Waters, didn’t know the role their father played until after his death when they read about it in the book,Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson. The book describes Alfonso Campbell’s role as the co-chair of the Montgomery Improvement Association’s transportation committee.

“He never said anything about it. Never, ever, shared that with us. [We] knew Daddy was a car salesman for Capital Chevrolet here in Montgomery,” Alfonso Campbell, Jr. said. 

He and his sister described how their father managed to provide the MIA with seventeen station wagons. 

“ Nobody ever tells the story about Mr. Magoo. He was a white man that was good friends with my grandfather,” Sharon Campbell Waters said. 

Mr. Magoo refers to one of two Magoo brothers in town who each owned a car dealership, according to the siblings. 

“He did it. He sold my father [and] the Montgomery Improvement Association, 17 station wagons that they called the ‘rolling churches.’ And the rolling churches [are] what got everybody through that 381 days,” Waters said.

Plenty of people in attendance remembered 1955, some as organizers, others as children who watched their parents in the movement. 

Donzaleigh Abernathy, the daughter of Juanita and Ralph Abernathy remembered the day her Montgomery home was bombed when she was a child. 

“ Montgomery was lit up. And my mother used to say this one thing: Alabama saved America from herself,” Abernathy recalled.

Other speakers focused on the political climate of today. Andrea Young, the daughter of Jean Childs Young and Andrew Young, currently serves as the executive director of the ACLU of Georgia.

“ The people suffering are us, right? The billionaires are fine and they’re making more money than ever and consolidating power. And we have an opportunity to interrupt that, but we’ve got to do it.” Young said. “Because they stepped out on faith. None of this was supposed to work, but they stepped out on faith and made it happen and changed the world.”

Bernice King was one of the final speakers of the evening. King is the daughter of Coretta Scott King and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. King was five years old when her father was assassinated. Her remarks focused on the city of Montgomery, the legacies of the people in the room, and her father’s nonviolent ideology.

“Thank you to the people of Montgomery. We cannot forget the people of Montgomery because Montgomery is the place that gave us the momentum,” King said.

The reunion came to a close when the venue flashed its lights. People packed plates to go, took final photos of the night and exchanged contact information to keep in touch once everyone returned home. 

Vahini Shori is a Report for America corps member covering faith and culture for WBHM.

This reporting is supported by WBHM’s Local Journalism Innovation Fund. Find out more about the fund and how to donate here.