Thelma Glass

By Erica Pippins
Montgomery Advertiser

Thelma Glass, left, was a member of the Women's Political Council during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The Women's Political Council worked to correct the city's mistreatment of its black residents. (Lloyd Gallman, Montgomery Advertiser)

When Thelma Glass looks out the small rear kitchen window of her home of five decades, she can still see it.

The image of city buses passing by her West Edgemont Avenue house without a single passenger on Dec. 5, 1955, is a day that's as clear to her as it was 50 years ago.

"When the first bus came by with nobody on it, I couldn't believe it," Glass said as she pointed a nimble finger towards the spot where she witnessed a turning point in the nation's history.

"I called two or three people, and I stood right there for several hours because I was just so happy not to see anybody on it. It's a feeling of such happiness and accomplishment that you just can't quite explain."

At 89-years-old, Glass is the only surviving member of the Women's Political Council. The group helped organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and as its secretary, Glass, a retired professor of geography at Alabama State University, worked with her students to distribute fliers alerting blacks to boycott.

"Montgomery was like most southern cities. Segregation was it and you had to fight for every opportunity you had," said Glass, a Montgomery resident. "But many people wanted change and they (the Council) became the trailblazers of the boycott, the forerunners. They started out doing things for the improvement of blacks."

The Women's Political Council worked to rectify the mistreatment of blacks who rode the city's buses and sought change for blacks who were unjustly interrogated when they tried to vote. It was Glass' job to investigate those incidents and to try to set them right. But she encountered obstacles at every turn.

The Montgomery County Commission often turned a deaf ear to the black community's plight and threatened to arrest people if they tried to attend meetings, Glass said. City bus company officials were also unwilling to meet. Glass was unfazed.

"Integration was a dirty word and you could get in a lot of trouble if you even spoke of it, but I didn't mind speaking my mind and asking questions. I stopped being nervous when they went through this block throwing acid on cars," she said.

"My strength came from God and contact with people like MLK, Vernon Johns, members of the Women's Political Council and the young people who wanted things to be better," she said. "We didn't have time to sit still and be scared."

The council and other local activists continued to push for equal rights, but it wasn't until Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery city bus on Dec. 1, 1955, that the masses got involved. Thousands participated in a year-long boycott of the bus company. Glass became a bus driver in her car, transporting people to and from campus.

"Many people did many things, but it was the people who walked who made the boycott successful," she said. "Nothing would have changed on the buses if they hadn't decided to stop riding them. It just goes to show you the power of economics."

But when the boycott ended, Glass said she felt like a new person.

The educator, who is retired in name only, wants today's youth to follow in the steps of their parents and grandparents.

"I wasn't afraid of anything anymore. It helped me understand people more, poverty and its causes," Glass said. "It made me want to push for opportunities for people to better themselves and make this a better society through education and seeking an understanding of different cultures. That spirit must be kept alive today."