Ula Taylor, professor and chair of UC Berkeley’s Department of African American Studies, discusses in this podcast how a group called the Women’s Political Council made possible the 382-day bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, that changed the course of the civil rights movement in the United States.
“People know about Rosa Parks,” says Taylor in the interview. “People know about Martin Luther King Jr.—and they should.” But what they don’t know, she adds, is that it was the behind-the-scenes organizing effort by the Women’s Political Council, led by Jo Ann Robinson, that made the boycott successful.
Taylor also discusses the importance of group-centered leadership, instead of having one leader—because when that leader is gone, the movement falls apart.
“Even though these women were not in the limelight, they were engaging in a form of leadership,” says Taylor. “But because we live in a country in a culture where we oftentimes identify leadership as a talking head, we don’t understand all of the thinking that goes behind a lot of the ideas that the talking head is even articulating.”
From the Judges
This podcast was well done! NPR quality, in fact. We enjoyed the storytelling, and the historic clips were well done. We also love that the podcast was easily accessible and ADA compliant (transcribing the podcast was a great touch)!
