A civil rights legend, who took part in the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 and who confronted the same bus driver who was driving the day Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, died at age 100 on Monday.
Before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, there was Lucille Times. She got into a fistfight with the driver only six months before in 1955. She claimed the driver tried to run her off the road and she risked being arrested to confront him.
After the ordeal, Times boycotted the buses. The bus boycott gained local and national attention, and she regularly picked up black passengers at bus stops in her car.
Civil rights activist Lucille Times dies at the age of 100. She was best known for getting into a fistfight with the same bus driver who was driving the day Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat six months later
During the boycott, 40,000 African Americans chose to walk to work to protest against segregated seating.
The boycott ended with the US Supreme Court upholding a Montgomery federal court ruling to integrate the bus system after the city appealed the decision.
Later in 1965, Times and her husband, Charlie, took part in the march from Selma to Montgomery with Martin Luther King Jr. The 50-mile march took place from March 21-25 after two failed attempts that were met with violence.
Among Times and her husband, as many as 25,000 people marched for the rights of Black voters to register in the South and in support of the Voting Rights Act.
In 2011, Times was honored with a historic marker in front of her home, where she and her family had lived since 1939
The march was credited with helping pass the act in 1965. The Times opened their home to 18 participants of different races from across the country to stay.
Although she remained relatively unknown to the masses, she and her husband were active in the Montgomery community, owning the Times Café, where they regularly welcomed MLK and his colleagues. The civil rights leader planned the Montgomery Bus Boycott at their café.
Times, born in 1921, was also a member of the NAACP, as well as other organizations.
In 2011, Times was honored with a historic marker in front of her home, where she and her family had lived since 1939. The house itself has been on Alabama's Register of Landmarks and Heritage since 2007.
Times and her husband, Charlie, participated in the Selma to Montgomery march (pictured in Selma, Alabama, March 15, 1965) with Martin Luther King Jr and up to 25,000 others
In 2017, she won the Unsung Hero Award for efforts in her hometown, but it wasn't until a year later that others outside Montgomery began to realize who she was.
After she received the award, longtime friend and former Alabama Attorney General Troy King posted a touching video about her on social media that was seen more than a million times within a matter of days.
In the video, Times - who had trouble speaking due to a recent stroke paralyzing her vocal cords - said: 'It's how you treat people. Just be nice, be you. I love you for being who you are.'
As the Montgomery Bus Boycott started and gained local and national attention, Times continued to pick up Black passengers she saw at bus stops, as she had been doing since getting into the fight with the driver
During the boycott, 40,000 black people chose to walk to work in protest of segregated seating. Pictured: black people walking to work during the third month of the 381-day bus boycott, in February 1956 in Montgomery, Alabama
The US Supreme Court upheld the Montgomery federal court ruling to integrate the bus system after the city appealed the decision. Picture: a bus station with "Colored Waiting Room" sign in May 1940 in Durham, North Carolina
The former attorney general praised the activist. 'You'd never have any idea that a giant of the Civil Rights Movement lived in that house. If you just met her in the grocery store, you'd never know she is who she is and that she had just a direct hand in changing the course of history forever,' he said.
In February, for Black History Month, Times was the focus of a commemoration in Montgomery. The event was held at a garden named after her, the Nixon-Times Community Garden.
The Times were very involved in their local community. They owned the Times Café (pictured left), where MLK and his colleagues planned the bus boycott. They also allowed 18 people to stay in their home after the Selma march, no matter their race
Despite not being as well-known as Rosa Parks or MLK, Times' efforts during the civil rights movement changed the course of history forever.
Her funeral will be held at 1pm Sunday at St. Jude Catholic Church, with a burial to follow. A public viewing is scheduled from noon to 3pm on Saturday at the Phillips-Riley Funeral Home in Montgomery.
The deadly march for civil rights: The Selma to Montgomery March
Martin Luther King Jr. led a deadly and violent march from Selma to the Alabama capital Montgomery from March 21-25.
They were protesting to allow Black voters to be registered in the state and pass a Voting Rights Act.
They followed a 54-mile path and the march attempted to start twice, but was met with resistance and violence from local authorities and white vigilante groups.
In the year prior to the march, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, which banned racial discrimination of voters, but was met with great resistance in Alabama.
Alabama's own Governor at the time George Wallace was against registering Black voters.
One of the worst days for the march was Bloody Sunday.
On March 7, 1965, 600 protesters set out to march to Montgomery.
They only made it as far as the Edmund Pettis Bridge before state troopers wielding whips, nightsticks and tear gas against them, forcing them to return to Selma.
The event was televised and drew national attention.
Hundreds of ministers, priests, rabbis and social activists headed to Selma after the event to join the march.
Source: History.com
