What civil rights action looks like 70 years after the Montgomery Bus Boycott ...Middle East

Pulling off the boycott for more than a year took an extreme amount of dedication and discipline, Crenshaw recalled.

“We walked, and we kept walking,” said Crenshaw, who walked across town to school each day. “We never got back on those buses.”

Crenshaw went on to a lifetime of civil rights activism. She organized National Council of Negro Women chapters as a southern field representative and was a member of President Jimmy Carter’s domestic policy staff, focused on small and minority business issues. She founded The Southern Youth Leadership Development Institute, mentoring young people as Parks once did for her.

“Everywhere you go, people say they are inspired by Mrs. Parks and by what happened with the Montgomery Bus Boycott,” Crenshaw said.

Boycotting in the spirit of Montgomery

While the specific methods have changed, the underlying goal of leveraging the economic power of the community to drive social and policy change remains the same, said Deborah Scott, the CEO of Georgia Stand-Up. The organization is focused on economic and social justice issues and emphasizes engaging and developing the next generation of activists and leaders.

Scott said she was a teenager when she arrived in Atlanta more than 30 years ago to begin organizing with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference around the anti-apartheid movement. She worked to free South African anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela and to establish a holiday honoring King.

She learned from the Rev. James Orange, the late prominent civil rights activist and King assistant, who taught her the value of preparing young people to work for however long it takes to enact change.

She remembers some of the important questions he posed: “What are you going to do after you tweeted, after you put the word out to show up? What are you going to say when you get to the microphone? What are you going to do and how will you conduct yourself in these situations?”

Just like the original Montgomery boycott, which sought access to affordable, non-discriminatory transportation by bringing large groups of people together to drive change, the success of boycotts after it required an unshakeable sense of unity.

“Everything is about relationships, but relationship organizing is the thing that is the same,” she said.

With widespread use of social media platforms, today’s boycotts look different. Scott said the biggest change in boycotting with the newer generation is the focus on using consumer purchasing power to pressure companies to change their policies or practices.

“We’re encouraging people to really dig deep about where they want to spend their dollars,” Scott said.

Next generation takes action

Madison Pugh, at 13, is about the same age that Crenshaw was when she became involved in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The eighth grader decided with her grandmother not to shop at Target after the retailing giant announced it was phasing out its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

She said the retailer’s decision felt like a betrayal and a step backward.

Living in Montgomery, Pugh is growing up surrounded by the history of the civil rights movement that transpired decades before she was born. The stories from Crenshaw and others are more than just inspiring, she said.

“It’s saddening to the heart to know that a whole group of people weren’t allowed to go somewhere and have an education or be treated as humans because they were a different skin color,” Pugh said. “It definitely lets me know that the job will never be finished and you have to keep pushing.”

Scott said one of her goals is to help people see the connection between the activism of the past and today.

“The movement and the Civil Rights Movement didn’t just happen back then,” Scott said. “It’s still happening now.”

___

Jaylen Green reported from New York. AP Race and Ethnicity news editor Aaron Morrison in New York contributed.

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