Montgomery honors Smith family for their role in ending segregation

Alex Gladden, Montgomery Advertiser
Updated ·1 min read
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People gathered Friday in Montgomery to honor the Smith family's legacy of activism in the civil rights movement by unveiling a plaque dedicated to their work.

Mary Louise Smith started the family's history of activism when she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus Oct. 21, 1955 — weeks before Rosa Parks' arrest.

Her father Frank Smith represented her in court and then later consented to have Mary Louise Smith be one of the four named plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, Browder v. Gayle. The suit eventually ended federal sanctions of Jim Crow laws across the nation.

Mary Louise Smith, a plaintiff in the Browder vs. Gayle case that desegregated buses in Montgomery, stands beside the Rosa Parks statue in downtown Montgomery, Ala., after it was unveiled on Sunday, December 1, 2019. The Greater Washington Park Community Association honored her family by placing a marker detailing the family's history with the civil rights movement.

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The next generation of Smiths were involved in a famous suit in 1969.

A release from the city noted that Mary Louise Smith-Ware and her sister Annie Ruth Smith consented for their young sons, Edward and Vincent, to serve as plaintiffs in a racial discrimination lawsuit against the Montgomery YMCA for denying them admission to a summer swim program held at an all-white YMCA branch.

The U.S. District Court ruled in favor of Edward and Vincent in 1972 and ended segregation in the Montgomery YMCA as well as the remaining segregation ordinances in Alabama’s capital city.

The Smith family gathers around the marker to honor Smith relatives May 19. The Smiths played a key role in the civil rights movement in Montgomery.
The Smith family gathers around the marker to honor Smith relatives May 19. The Smiths played a key role in the civil rights movement in Montgomery.

The Greater Washington Park Community Association installed the plaque to raise awareness about the impact of three generations of the Smiths.

Cosmo-D Productions erected the marker.

Alex Gladden is the Montgomery Advertiser's public safety reporter. She can be reached at agladden@gannett.com or on Twitter @gladlyalex.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Montgomery honors Smith family for their role in ending segregation