Sarah Herbert


By Jannell McGrew
Montgomery Advertiser

Montgomery resident Sarah Herbert gave rides to boycotters during the bus protest of 1955. (Janelle McGrew, Montgomery Advertiser)

It was dangerous for anyone - white or black - to support the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

But there were whites who did. Montgomery resident Sarah Herbert was among them.

Holding a black-and-white framed picture of her husband in her hand, she chatted about how handsome he was, how dedicated and how they together in their own way rebelled against Jim Crow law.

Herbert said that she, along with a group of other white women (she pointed out that pretty much all the ones she knew then are deceased now) would help transport blacks where they needed to go during the bus protest.

"I went and picked up my maid and a few others who were standing around and took them wherever they needed to go," she said, noting that it wasn't just because she had a maid that she provided rides.
Herbert said she truly believed that blacks deserved equal access to any part of the bus they wanted.

They paid the same fare as whites, she added, and "it was time" they were treated fairly.

The 82-year-old Montgomerian is quick to point out that she had the support of her husband at the time, Woodson Draut, a former FBI agent who took down information about the Ku Klux Klan.
She said he, too, believed in equality for blacks and supported efforts to end inhumane treatment of blacks in his own way.

"My husband was very enthusiastic about it," she said, "but at the time, he couldn't work openly, so he did it behind the scenes."

She said he attended the Klan meetings to gain information about their activities.

"He went out and took down car tag numbers," she said, noting the danger he was in and the possibility of being discovered at any time.

"I just knew there was going to be a cross burned in front of our house," she said.
Draut died in 1965, the year of the historic Selma-to-Montgomery March, but his memory lives on with his wife.

She holds dear the old photos they had together along with the chamber that was taken from his pistol, given to her by the government after his death.

When integration came about, Herbert recalled deliberately going to a local five-and-dime and sitting next to several blacks.

"I sat at the counter and I had my lunch," she said. "I don't remember what I ate. I sat down there because I felt I needed to."