Working with attorney Fred Gray as her adviser, she met with the then-mayor of Montgomery, William A. Gayle. Then two weeks later, another police officer poured acid on her car. Robinson moved to Atlantato co… She moved to Montgomery in 1949 to teach English at Alabama State College.Jo Ann quickly became involved in the Women's Political Council (WPC), a local civic organization helping women become more involved in civic matters.

Enjoy your visit!I am sure you have heard of the Montgomery bus boycott. You know how important it was in the civil rights movement. She led a successful city bus boycott that gained national attention and the support of Martin Luther King Jr. Thereafter, she took up teaching at a public school in Macon. After the early death of her father, Robinson moved from Culloden to Macon where she did her schooling at segregated public schools. Jo Ann Robinson was born on April 17, 1912, in Culloden, Georgia. The following year Jo Ann became the president of the WPC and made desegregating the bus system one of the top priorities.The WPC made repeated complaints about segregated seating and improper driver conduct, to the city commission, with nothing ever happening. It wasn't nearly as simple as pushing the start button on a copy machine.It started as a one-day boycott and ended thirteen months later. However, when Robinson approached fellow WPC members with her story and proposal, she was told that it was "a fact of life in Montgomery." Another pured acid on her car.On June 5, 1956, the federal district court ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional and the Supreme court struck down laws that required segregated seating in November of 1956. In 1949 she had a defining moment when, on a nearly empty bus, she sat in the fifth row. In 1949, Robinson was verbally attacked by a bus driver for sitting in the front "Whites only" section of the bus.
Jo Ann Robinson languishes as an unsung heroine of the American civil rights movement despite the enormous contribution she made towards gaining equal rights for all Afro Americans. Robinson's health suffered a serious decline just as her memoir, The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It, was published in 1987. Jo Ann Gibson Robinson died in 1992.

After the boycott victory Robinson continued to teach at Alabama State until 1960, when she and other faculty supporters of student sit-ins at … Out of fear that the incident would escalate and that the driver would go from verbal abuse to physical, Robinson left the bus. Jo Ann Robinson In a 1976 interview, Robinson pointed out, "That boycott was not supported by a few people; it was supported by 52,000 people." After a verbally abusive encounter on a segregated city bus, Robinson became an advocate for equal rights for African Americans. The whites only section was empty. The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was formed with MLK as the president.Side note: If you don't know what mimeographing is, look it up. Reference: Black Women in America An Historical Encyclopedia She was honored by a 1989 publication prize given by the Southern Association for Women Historians. Eventually, the governor ordered state police to guard the homes of boycott leaders. Learn about Jo Anna Robinson: her birthday, what she did before fame, her family life, fun trivia facts, popularity rankings, and more.


She finished her teaching career in Los Angeles, in the public school system, retiring in 1976.In her memoir, Jo Ann wrote: “An oppressed but brave people, whose pride and dignity rose to the occasion, conquered fear, and faced whatever perils had to be confronted. Robinson was born on April 17, 1912, into a family of farmers to Owen Boston and Dollie Webb Gibson. Her response to the incident was to attempt to start a protest boycott against bus segregation in Alabama. Jo Ann Robinson Jo Ann Gibson was born on April 17, 1912, in Culloden, Georgia, the youngest of 12 children of Owen Boston Gibson and Dollie Webb Gibson. After a verbally abusive encounter on a segregated city bus, Jo Ann Robinson became an advocate for equal rights for African Americans. The city's leadership was not interested in integrating buses, however, so Robinson conceptualized a boycott.When the boycott proved successful, the Montgomery Improvement Association, led by King, came to manage its continuation. Born on April 17, 1912 as the youngest of twelve children in Culloden, Georgia, Jo Ann Robinson would become a successful educator and famous civil rights activist.. After graduating from Fort Valley State College in 1934, she became a public school teacher in Macon, Georgia and married Wilbur Robinson for a brief time. The boycott did not officially end until segregated seating ended in Montgomery which took another month.Once the boycott was over, Robinson continued teaching at Alabama State until 1960 when she and others resigned. An instrumental figure in initiating and sustaining the Born on 17 April 1912, in Culloden, Georgia, Robinson was the youngest of 12 children. Following a year of study at Columbia University, she taught briefly at Mary Allen College in Crockett, Texas, before moving to Montgomery in 1949 to teach English at Alabama State College.As King and other civic and religious leaders established the Despite Robinson’s efforts to work behind the scenes, she was the target of several acts of intimidation. 'Known as the "King of Motown," Smokey Robinson founded the R&B group The Miracles, which delivered 37 Top 40 hits for Motown Records.Bayard Rustin was a civil rights organizer and activist, best known for his work as adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950s and '60s.Jo Ann Robinson organized a city bus boycott by African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955 that changed the course of civil rights in America.© 2020 Biography and the Biography logo are registered trademarks of A&E Television Networks, LLC. Jo Ann spent five years teaching in while also getting her master's degree in English from Atlanta University. Robinson graduated as valedictorian of her high school class and went on to earn her BA degree from Fort Valley State College, becoming the first person in her family to graduate from college. They were supporting the sit-ins at the college. A carpool system was organized by the MIA, with about 300 cars helping the people get where they needed to go.Jo Ann Robinson was the victim of different forms of intimidation.