Mary Louise Ware ( Smith; born 1937) is an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

. She was arrested in October 1955 at the age of 18 in

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

for refusing to give up her seat on the segregated bus system. She is one of several women who were arrested for this offense prior to

Rosa Parks Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has honored her as "the ...

that year. Parks was the figure around whom the

Montgomery bus boycott The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States ...

was organized, starting December 5, 1955. On February 1, 1956, Smith was one of five women named as plaintiffs in the federal civil suit, ''

Browder v. Gayle ''Browder v. Gayle'', 142 F. Supp. 707 (1956),''Browder v. Gayle''
14 ...

'', challenging the constitutionality of the state and local bus segregation laws. On June 13, 1956, a three-judge panel of the

United States District Court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

ruled that the laws were unconstitutional. The ruling was upheld by the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

on November 13 in a landmark decision, and in December it declined to reconsider. On December 20, 1956, the Supreme Court ordered Alabama to desegregate its buses and the Montgomery bus boycott ended.

Early life and education

Mary Louise Smith was born in

into a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

family. She and all her siblings attended and graduated from St. Jude Educational Institute. She was baptized at St. Jude's Church, where she was a parishioner. At the age of 18, on October 21, 1955, Smith was returning home on the Montgomery city bus, and was ordered to relinquish her seat to a white passenger who had boarded later. She refused to do so and was arrested. She was charged with failure to obey segregation orders, some 40 days before the arrest of

on similar charges. Her father bailed her out of jail and paid her nine-dollar fine. The incident was initially known only to family and neighbors. Later a cousin, at a mass meeting to support a planned bus boycott, discussed her case with organizers. Attorney Fred Gray asked Smith and her father to become plaintiffs in a civil rights class-action lawsuit to end segregated seating on city buses. Her father agreed, for he wanted justice.

''Browder v. Gayle''

On February 1, 1956, Gray and other attorneys filed a civil suit, ''

Browder v. Gayle ''Browder v. Gayle'', 142 F. Supp. 707 (1956),''Browder v. Gayle''
14 ...

'' in the

, challenging state and local laws on bus segregation. Smith was one of five plaintiffs, including

Aurelia Browder Aurelia Shines Browder Coleman (January 29, 1919 – February 4, 1971) was an African-American civil rights activist in Montgomery, Alabama. In April 1955, almost eight months before the arrest of Rosa Parks and a month after the arrest of Claude ...

Claudette Colvin Claudette Colvin (born Claudette Austin; September 5, 1939) is an American pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement and retired nurse aide. On March 2, 1955, she was arrested at the age of 15 in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up ...

Susie McDonald Susie McDonald, also known as Miss Sue, was an African American activist who served as one of the plaintiffs in the bus segregation lawsuit ''Browder v. Gayle'' (1956) in Montgomery, Alabama. She was arrested for violating bus segregation law on Oct ...

, and Jeanetta Reese. (Reese left the case that month because of intimidation.) The women, other than Reese, testified before a three-judge panel, and on June 13, 1956, the court ruled that the laws were unconstitutional, based on equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. Appealed by the city and state, the case made its way to the

. On November 13, 1956, it affirmed the lower court's ruling. On December 17, it declined an appeal by the city and state to reconsider, and on December 20 ordered the state to desegregate its buses. This ended the

with success.

Later years

Smith married a Mr. Ware and they had four children together. They later divorced. Smith Ware continued to work for civil rights beyond the boycott and trial. For instance, she worked on

voting rights Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

campaigns before passage of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, and participated in the 1963

March on Washington The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, also known as simply the March on Washington or The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic righ ...

. In 1969, Smith contacted civil rights attorney

Morris Dees Morris Seligman Dees Jr. (born December 16, 1936) is an American attorney known as the co-founder and former chief trial counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), based in Montgomery, Alabama. He ran a direct marketing firm before fou ...

to sue the Montgomery

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

for not allowing her and her sister's children into their summer camp program. Smith is active with her 12 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She enjoys reading, and she is active in several of her church auxiliaries and senior citizen clubs. In 1995, Smith was told by a news reporter, that she had been discussed as being a test case by black leaders in relation to organizing a bus boycott. She was told they had not picked her because her father was said to be an

alcoholic Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomin ...

, and they did not want any grounds for criticism of participants. Smith said this was untrue, and she was bothered more by the rumor than by having had her own contributions overlooked. Given the national attention commanded by the

, Rosa Parks is the woman most associated with the issue. Smith was proud to be among the four women who took their case to the United States Supreme Court. When Rosa Parks died in October 2005, Smith Ware, then 68, attended the memorial service in Montgomery. "I had to pay my tribute to her," Ware said. "She was our role model."

Tributes

Rita Dove Rita Frances Dove (born August 28, 1952) is an American poet and essayist. From 1993 to 1995, she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She is the first African American to have been appointed since the posit ...

, a United States poet laureate, mentions Mary Louise Smith in her poem "The Enactment", in her collection, ''On the Bus with Rosa Parks'' (1999). She also referred to the then-young activist in her magazine article "The Torchbearer

". * In 2019 a statue of

was unveiled in Montgomery, Alabama, and four granite markers were also unveiled near the statue on the same day to honor four plaintiffs in ''

Browder v. Gayle ''Browder v. Gayle'', 142 F. Supp. 707 (1956),''Browder v. Gayle''
14 ...

'', including Mary Louise Smith. Smith also took part in the unveiling ceremony.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Mary Louise Activists for African-American civil rights 1937 births Living people Activists from Montgomery, Alabama African-American Catholics Protests in Alabama Catholics from Alabama

Early life and education

''Browder v. Gayle''

Later years

Tributes

See also

References

External links