Editing Mary Louise Smith (activist)

{{Short description|American civil rights activist}}
'''Mary Louise Ware''' ({{nee}} '''Smith'''; born 1937) is an [[African-American]] [[civil rights]] [[activist]]. She was arrested in October 1955 at the age of 18 in [[Montgomery, Alabama]] 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]] that year. Parks was the figure around whom the [[Montgomery bus boycott]] was organized, starting December 5, 1955.<ref name="This Day">{{cite book|title=his Day in Civil Rights History |year=2009|publisher=NewSouth Books|isbn=978-1-58835-241-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0jwWrG4V1XQC&q=%22Mary+Louise+Smith%22+%22civil+rights%22&pg=PA319|author=Horace Randall Williams|author2=Ben Beard|access-date=11 January 2011|page=319}}</ref>

On February 1, 1956, Smith was one of five women named as plaintiffs in the federal civil suit, ''[[Browder v. Gayle]]'', 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]] ruled that the laws were unconstitutional. The ruling was upheld by the [[United States Supreme Court]] 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 [[Montgomery, Alabama]] into a [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] family. She and all her siblings attended and graduated from [[St. Jude Educational Institute]]. She was baptized at [[City of St. Jude|St. Jude's Church]], where she was a parishioner.<ref name="Black Catholic Messenger" />

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 [[Rosa Parks]] on similar charges.<ref name="Ladies Before Rosa">{{cite news |last1=Hendrickson |first1=Paul |title=The Ladies Before Rosa |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1998/04/12/the-ladies-before-rosa/469bf82c-16c0-45c5-9991-812ac6a6005f/ |newspaper=Washington Post |date=April 12, 1998}}</ref> She was arrested and fined $12.<ref name="WBHM">{{cite news |last1=Cleek |first1=Ashley |title=Plaintiff in Landmark Civil Rights Montgomery Bus Case Shares Her Story |url=https://wbhm.org/2015/plaintiff-in-landmark-civil-rights-bus-case-shares-her-story/ |publisher=WBHM NPR Alabama |date=December 10, 2015}}</ref>

Activist [[E. D. Nixon]], leading some of the bus boycott movement, shared information that Smith's father was an alcoholic, and she was not the right symbol to withstand the publicity. The family and neighbors dispute this characterization.<ref name="Ladies Before Rosa" /> Additionally, she was considered not the "right class" to be the rallying point for the movement.<ref name="USNWR">{{cite news |last1=Thornton |first1=Jeannye |title="I'm not going to ride the bus." |publisher=U.S. News & World Report |date=December 11, 1995}}</ref> Smith's father represented her in court, without aid from outside political organizations.<ref name="Black Catholic Messenger" />

Attorney [[Fred Gray (attorney)|Fred Gray]] recruited Smith and her father to become plaintiffs in a federal civil rights class-action lawsuit to end segregated seating on city buses.<ref name="WBHM" />

==''Browder v. Gayle''==
{{main|Browder v. Gayle}}
On February 1, 1956, Gray and other attorneys filed a civil suit, ''[[Browder v. Gayle]]'' in the [[United States District Court]], challenging state and local laws on bus segregation. Smith was one of five plaintiffs, including [[Aurelia Browder]], [[Claudette Colvin]], [[Susie McDonald]], and [[Jeanetta Reese]]. (Reese left the case that month because of intimidation.)<ref name="Patton">{{cite web|url=http://www.crmvet.org/info/mbbbios.htm|title=Montgomery Bus Boycott — Biographic Sketches|author=Dr. Gwen Patton|location=Trenholm State Technical College Archives|access-date=February 4, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/279205|title=Aurelia S. Browder et al. v. W. A. Gayle et al., No. 1147|series=Series: Civil Cases, 9/1938 - 11/26/1968 |date=September 1938 |publisher=National Archives|access-date=October 22, 2016}}</ref> 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 [[United States Supreme Court]]. 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 [[Montgomery bus boycott]] with success.

==Later years==
Little information is available about her personal life. She married Mr. Ware and they had children together. 

Smith followed the civil rights movement, but were not actively part of the political organization. She did attend the 1963 [[March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom|March on Washington]].<ref name="Time not going to stand">{{cite news |last1=Waxman |first1=Olivia |title='I Was Not Going to Stand.' Rosa Parks Predecessors Recall Their History-Making Acts of Resistance |url=https://time.com/5786220/claudette-colvin-mary-louise-smith/ |publisher=Time |date=March 2, 2020}}</ref>

In 1969, Smith and her sister allowed their sons to become plaintiffs in a racial discrimination lawsuit against the Montgomery YMCA. Lawyer [[Morris Dees]] represented their suit, which called out the YMCA for not allowing her and her sister's children into their summer camp program. <ref name="dees">{{Cite book|title=A Lawyer's Journey: The Morris Dees Story|url=https://archive.org/details/lawyersjourney00dees|url-access=registration|last=Dees|first=Morris|publisher=American Bar Association Publications|year=2001|isbn=1570739943|location=Chicago|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lawyersjourney00dees/page/108 108]–12, 131–33}}</ref><ref name="SPL">{{Cite news|url=https://www.splcenter.org/seeking-justice/case-docket/smith-v-young-mens-christian-association|title=Smith v. Young Men's Christian Association|newspaper=Southern Poverty Law Center|access-date=2016-10-22}}</ref> In 1972, the U.S. District court ruled in their favor and ended segregation at the YMCA as well as voided remaining segregation ordinances in the city.<ref name="Montgomery Advertiser">{{cite news |last1=Gladden |first1=Alex |title=Montgomery honors Smith family for their role in ending segregation |url=https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/local/2023/05/22/city-acknowledges-large-role-smith-family-played-in-civil-rights/70237188007/ |publisher=Montgomery Advertiser |date=May 22, 2023}}</ref>

Smith is active with her 12 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.<ref name="Patton Coll">{{cite web |last1=Patton |first1=Gwen |title=Montgomery Bus Boycott — Biographic Sketches |url=https://www.crmvet.org/info/mbbbios.htm |website=Dr. Gwen Patton Collection, Trenholm State College Archives |access-date=21 June 2023}}</ref> She still lives in Montgomery, Alabama, and her older sister lives across the street.<ref name="WBHM" />

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, [s]he was our role model."<ref name="Chicago Tribune">{{cite web|title=Other heroes of bus boycott|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2005/11/16/other-heroes-of-bus-boycott/|website=chicagotribune.com|access-date=12 March 2015}}</ref>

==Tributes==
*[[Rita Dove]], 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 [[Rosa Parks]]".<ref name="Time">{{cite web |last1=Dove |first1=Rita |title=The Torchbearer |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,991252,00.html |website=Time Magazine|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080306060110/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,991252,00.html |archive-date=2008-03-06 }}</ref>

* In 2019 a statue of [[Rosa Parks]] 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]]'',<ref name="stanford1">{{cite web|url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/browder-v-gayle-352-us-903 |title=Browder v. Gayle, 352 U.S. 903 &#124; The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute |date=24 April 2017 |publisher=Kinginstitute.stanford.edu |access-date=2019-12-09}}</ref><ref name="Richmond statue">{{cite web|url=http://richmondfreepress.com/news/2019/dec/06/alabama-unveils-statue-civil-rights-icon-rosa-park/ |title=Alabama unveils statue of civil rights icon Rosa Parks &#124; Richmond Free Press &#124; Serving the African American Community in Richmond, VA |publisher=Richmond Free Press |date=2019 |access-date=2019-12-09}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://wjla.com/news/nation-world/rosa-parks-civil-rights-statue-to-be-unveiled-in-alabama |title=Rosa Parks statue unveiled in Alabama on anniversary of her refusal to give up seat |date=December 2019 |publisher=WJLA |access-date=2019-12-09}}</ref> including Mary Louise Smith. Smith also took part in the unveiling ceremony.<ref name="Richmond statue" />

* In 2023, Smith received a historical marker in Montgomery for her own actions.<ref name="Black Catholic Messenger">{{cite news |last1=Tinner-Williams |first1=Nate |title=Black Catholic civil rights activist Mary Louise Smith, predecessor of Rosa Parks, to receive historical marker in Montgomery |url=https://www.blackcatholicmessenger.com/smith-family-historical-marker-montgomery/ |publisher=Black Catholic Messenger |date=May 12, 2023}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography}}
*[[Aurelia Browder]]
*[[Claudette Colvin]]
*[[Susie McDonald]]
*[[Irene Morgan]]
*[[Rosa Parks]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==

{{Civil rights movement}}
{{authority control}}

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