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Heroes

More than 100 Montgomery Bus Boycott activists were arrested in February 1956 for participating in the boycott. These courageous women and men took on enormous risks to unite and mobilize against racial segregation and humiliation on public transportation.

The Rev. Ralph David Abernathy
Euretta F. Adair
Clarence Adams
The Rev. Willie F. Alford
The Rev. Burl Mack Averhart
Ida Mae Baker
J.H. Baker
The Rev. A. Edward Banks
Sam Barnett
Walter Lee Bell
The Rev. L. Roy Bennett
Arthur Bibbins
The Rev. R.B. Binion
Mose Bishop
P.M. Blair
The Rev. J.W. Bonner
The Rev. Eddie Bradford
Samuel Brown
Norris Butler
Otis A. Carlton
Mary L. Carr
Tom Carr
Osbourne C. Chambliss
The Rev. J.H. Cherry
Louis Christburg
Dr. M.C. Cleveland
P.E. Conley
The Rev. Fred L. Davis
Alfred Ellis
Isiah Ferguson
The Rev. Edgar N. French
Jimmie Gamble
John H. Garrison
Tommy Gilchrist
The Rev. R.J. Glasco
Fred D. Gray
Thomas Gray
Addie James Hamerter
Will Hardman
The Rev. Joshua W. Hayes
The Rev. S. Heard
George Henderson
George Hill
John Green Hill
The Rev. A.H. Hoffman
Booker T. Holmes
The Rev. H.H. Hubbard
Edward Jackson
Mose Jackson
Alberta J. James
Jacob James
The Rev. H.H. Johnson
Mentha L. Johnson
Robert Johnson
W.H. Johnson
Dr. Moses W. Jones
George H. Jordan
Eli Judkins
Mathew Kennedy
J.N. King
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Jackson Knox
The Rev. B.D. Lambert
Audrey Belle Langford
Clarence W. Lee
E.H. Ligon
Jimmie L. Lowe
The Rev. Simon Peter McBride
Henry A. McClain
Augustus McHaney
Cora McHaney
Freddie Morris
Walter Moss
The Rev. Arthur W. Murphy
E.D. Nixon
The Rev. H.J. Palmer
Rosa Parks
Tom Parks
Wilson Patrick
Annie Patterson
Judge Pickett
James E. Pierce
Charlie Polk Jr.
Frank J. Powell Jr.
The Rev. W.J. Powell
James T. Primus
Mose W. Richburg
Jo Ann Robinson
Landy Robinson
Lillie Bell Robinson
Natis Robinson
Richard Rose
J.C. Sanders
The Rev. Solomon S. Seay
The Rev. B.J. Simms
The Rev. J.C. Smith
Walter Smith
Frank L. Taylor
Rebecca Tell
James Thornton
Wesley Tolbert
Calvin Varner
Lottie Green Varner
L.C. Walker
Eli Washington
Irene West
Georgia Wilkerson
Edward Williams
The Rev. Henry Williams
Ronald R. Young

121 results

J.H. Baker

J.H. Baker

January 13, 1926 - December 6, 2004

Sam Barnett

Sam Barnett

April 10, 1910 - February 26, 1985

Mose Bishop

Mose Bishop

March 28, 1911 - January 7, 1979

P.M. Blair

P.M. Blair

February 20, 1902 - September 19, 1976

Tom Carr

Tom Carr

August 1, 1924 - February 22, 2001

P.E. Conley

P.E. Conley

July 5, 1893 - September 2, 1974

Thomas Gray

Thomas Gray

June 2, 1923 - April 18, 2011

George Hill

George Hill

October 16, 1925 - August 13, 1977

Jacob James

Jacob James

March 10, 1912 - December 27, 1978

Eli Judkins

Eli Judkins

August 7, 1910 - November 24, 1980

J.N. King

J.N. King

September 18, 1903 - April 1975

E.H. Ligon

E.H. Ligon

February 22, 1908 - April 22, 1984

E.D. Nixon

E.D. Nixon

July 12, 1899 - February 25, 1987

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks

February 4, 1913 - October 24, 2005

Tom Parks

Tom Parks

June 26, 1923 - March 16, 2011

Richard Rose

Richard Rose

August 10, 1931 - January 30, 1996

Walter Smith

Walter Smith

June 16, 1897 - October 30, 1963

L.C. Walker

L.C. Walker

October 19, 1904 - October 23, 1971

Irene West

Irene West

September 30, 1890 - September 7, 1975

George Giles

George Giles

February 13, 1913 - January 1, 1996

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Fred D. Gray

December 14, 1930 -

Born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1930, Fred D. Gray graduated from the Nashville Christian Institute, Alabama State College (now Alabama State University), and law school at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. Upon returning to Montgomery, he became Alabama’s 12th Black attorney.

Before becoming chief legal counsel and strategist for the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA)—a group of Black ministers and community leaders that facilitated the 13-month Montgomery Bus Boycott—Mr. Gray defended Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old Black girl arrested on a city bus and charged with disorderly conduct for refusing to give up her seat to a white person. Months later, he represented Rosa Parks after she was also arrested on a city bus for violating segregation laws.

Involved with the MIA since its inception, Mr. Gray served on the executive board and negotiating committee. In 1956, Mr. Gray legally represented 98 people indicted for their participation in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and filed Browder v. Gayle, a lawsuit challenging segregation on city buses on behalf of three Black women and one Black girl who had been forced off of city buses for sitting in “white-only” seats.

Due to the public nature of his legal duties, he became a target of harassment, intimidation, and false accusations. Despite having an exemption due to his ministerial duties as assistant pastor of Holt Street Church of Christ, Mr. Gray’s military draft status was immediately reclassified by white officials as eligible for the selective service after filing the Browder suit. Newspapers smeared Mr. Gray as a “draft dodger” and “NAACP troublemaker” before the national Selective Service director intervened the night before he was due to report for duty.

On December 20, 1956, the Supreme Court affirmed the ruling in Browder v. Gayle that segregation on city buses was unconstitutional and ordered the immediate implementation of integration in Montgomery.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was just the beginning of Mr. Gray’s prolific legal career focused on attaining civil rights for Black Americans and his personal pledge to “use the law to destroy everything segregated [he] could find.” Mr. Gray went on to win landmark suits that desegregated Alabama public colleges, universities, and school systems; secured protection for the civil rights marchers from Selma to Montgomery; and attained a monetary settlement and treatment for the victims of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment.

When Mr. Gray was elected to the Alabama State Legislature representing Tuskegee in 1970, he became one of the first two Black legislators since Reconstruction. His autobiography, Bus Ride to Justice, was published in 1995. In 2022, President Joe Biden awarded Mr. Gray the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor.

Mr. Gray continues to practice law in Montgomery and Tuskegee.