Georgia Theresa Gilmore was born on February 5, 1920, in Montgomery, Alabama, where she lived and worked her entire life. And,as we explain in the podcast, that life was far from easy. By the time she was in her 20s she had a long list of jobs including laundress, railroad tie-changer, midwife, and the one that she used to solely support her growing household of six children, her mother, and various extended family: a cook.
Because of the mistreatment of herself and all Black bus riders in Montgomery, she had a protest-of-one for the Montgomery bus system for about a year before her community decided to all boycott the bus company. Georgia used her skills as a cook, her fearlessness, and her gumption to be the organizer and visible face of a battalion of cooks across the city that called themselves the Club from Nowhere. The group made sandwiches, boxed dinners, pies, cakes…all the southern favorites, to sell across town. Georgia happily handed over profits from this to the Montgomery Improvement Association- the organization that took over organizing the boycott from the Women’s Political Council, a woman’s group that started it as a very successful one-day event.
When Georgia’s boss heard of her involvement in the boycott, he fired her. So, she opened her own business, a “Meat ‘n Three” out of her home with the help of her community and at the urging of a man she considered family, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “A meat and what?” you say? A lunch spot with a choice of one of two types of meat, and three “vegetables” –a word that is loosely defined and can include side dishes like macaroni and cheese and hushpuppies. (Read more about it here, at Southern Living.)
The Montgomery bus boycott lasted 381 days, but Georgia kept cooking in her kitchen and serving neighbors and luminaries in her house for decades. She also never backed down from a legal fight to further civil rights. Her life is an example of how one person can help change a nation: one biscuit or one action at a time.
Georgia Gilmore died on March 9, 1990, at the age of 70. She is buried in the Greenwood Cemetary in Montgomery, Alabama.
And as a cleanser, the promised video of Mahalia Jackson singing The Last Mile of the Way:
Time Travel with the History Chicks
Books!
Kids’ books (we loved how Georgia’s story lent itself to juvenile lit!)
So much food!
Travel- The US has a driving trail, the Civil Rights Trail, here’s a book we found that can give you a start on planning your own epic Civil Rights road trip!
Web!
Here’s a list of a few articles about Georgia:
(Southern) Black Women’s Presence in invisibility: Georgia GIlmore and The Club from Nowhere, Plenty with Little, and Most Without a Lot, Kitchen Sisters on The Kitchen of a Civil Rights Hero,
And some about the battles for Civil Rights and the Montgomery bus boycott in general:
Christian Science Monitor: George Wallace and Martin Luther King, Jr. Transcript of State of Alabama v. M.L. King, Jr. (it’s several pages, use the index on the site to continue) National Park Service Monthgomery Bus Boycott, Timeline of the boycott from Futurechurc.org
Nourishing the Movement is a website dedicated to Georgia and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Georgia’s home- her last one, not the one she lived in during the boycott- in Montgomery, Alabama was designated a historical landmark in 1995, Her home (and many others) can be found on the Historical Marker Database.
Miscellaneous Media!
If you would like to hear about another Black American cook, check out our episode on Zephyr Wright (or about the woman she worked for, Lady Bird Johnson.)
Eyes on the Prize is a 6-part documentary about the Civil Rights Movement. It’s available on most streaming services including Max, PBS, Prime, Hulu, and subscription YouTube.
Boycott is a very well-done fictional account of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It’s an HBO production but available on most streaming services.
The end song is, Lift Every Voice and Sing, the Black National Anthem, sung by the US Navy Band. For more history and the lyrics, visit NAACP.
