Samuel Gadson

By Darryn Simmons
Montgomery Advertiser

Samuel Gadson 's 1953 Ford Fairlane is very much like his 1955 Fairlane that he used as he drove people around during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. (Lloyd Gallman, Montgomery Advertiser)

Samuel Gadson, 78, looks off into the distance from the porch of his home on West Woodland Dr.

"From the beginning, so many things had happened that you just knew something was about to get started," Gadson said.

As he says this, he gets a faraway look as he seems to drift to a time before this. A time where Gadson and his 1955 Ford were doing their part to make things better.

Gadson used his car to transport people to work during the bus boycott. An elevator operator at Montgomery Fair, he also worked with Rosa Parks, who was a seamstress there at the time of her arrest.

As he thinks back to that time, Gadson reflects on the simple reason he participated in the bus boycott.

"It was the best way I could contribute," he said "I wanted to contribute something to make it better for the young people behind me."

That contribution didn't come easy. Gadson was a victim of harassment, abuse and arrest.

"We had a police chief and mayor that wanted to harass you every time they could," he said. "If you had 3 or 4 people in the car, they would stop you, insult you and call you all kinds of names."

Gadson recalls times when he and other bus boycott participants had to stay overnight in the church of civil rights activist Ralph Abernathy because members of the Klu Klux Klan were waiting in a vacant lot near the church ready to attack anyone who left the church. He also remembers the time when he was put in jail for not conforming to what they wanted.

"They arrested me for not obeying their commands," he said. "I was with Dr. (Martin Luther) King, but you're not going to get out of line and call me no names."

Jail time was not a pleasant experience for Gadson, but there was no breaking his spirit.

"They weren't going to insult me or jail me or push me to the point I'd give up what I was doing," he said. "I had a purpose."

That purpose wasn't just for him either. Gadson was doing with this for his two young sons, Clancy and Clifford.

Even horrible things like the bombing of Dr. King's house could not lessen Gadson's resolve.

"It was a huge crowd of people out there concerned," he said. "The mayor was out there trying to get everyone to leave but no one was hearing it until Dr. King himself came out there to assure us that he and his family was okay."

Even then, Gadson found himself in jail again for not dispersing quickly enough for the liking of the local authorities.

Again, jail didn't deter him. It had the exact opposite effect.

"It made me intent on going further with this," he said. "We had been treated so bad by these people for so long -- for no reason at all -- and it was time for it to stop."

That motivation was further pushed by the people he was involved with, like Dr. King and Rosa Parks. When asked about the legendary figures, Gadson can't help but let a small smile cross his face - especially when talking about King.

"I don't know if you follow Scripture, but he was the second Moses," Gadson said. "He decided his people were looking for the Promised Land and that he would lead them there -- and he was killed for it."

Of Parks, with whom he worked, he remembers how hard she toiled at Montgomery Fair.

"I know she was tired that day," he said. "She was the only seamstress working there and people were constantly bringing things in for her to work on. It was no shock that she was as tired as she was."

There's a sense of pride that surrounds Gadson when he talks about his time and role in the bus boycott. However, that dims a little when he's asked to look back and compare that time to now.

"I look at the things that are going on now and it's pathetic," he said. "What we went through back then and the way young people are now ... and I wonder if what we did wasn't for a lost cause."

Gadson said he has tried to tell young people about what they did back then and they've replied, "You didn't do that for me."

"Then who did we do it for?" he asked.

Still, Gadson has no regrets.

"The black man and woman were catching all kinds of hell back then and we changed things," he said. "I'm 78 years old and I'm thankful God let me get to this age -- I had to have done something right to be here."