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The Women's Political Council, founded in Montgomery, Alabama, was an organization that was part of the African-American Civil Rights Movement. Members included Mary Fair Burks, Jo Ann Robinson, Irene West, Thelma Glass, and Uretta Adair. The WPC was the first group to officially call for a boycott of the bus system during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, beginning in December 1955. They helped organize communications to get it started, as well as to support it, including giving people rides who were boycotting the buses. The African Americans of Montgomery upheld the boycott for more than a year. It ended in late December 1956, after the United States Supreme Court ruled in ''Browder v. Gayle'' that the state and local laws for bus segregation were unconstitutional, and ordered the state to desegregate public transportation. ==Origins== The WPC formed in 1946 as a civic organization for African-American professional women in the city of Montgomery, Alabama. It was inspired by the Atlanta Neighborhood Union. Many of its middle-class women were active in education; most of WPC's members were educators at Alabama State College or Montgomery's public schools. About forty women attended the first organizational meeting. Mary Fair Burks, who was head of Alabama State's English department, was the group's first president. The WPC's first undertaking was to register to vote, which was difficult as white administrators subjectively managed a literacy test and tried to prevent blacks from registering. All the WPC members eventually passed the test; they established classes to help other blacks fill out registration forms and pass the test In 1950, Burks decided to resign from the presidency, while remaining active in the organization. Robinson succeeded Burks as president. As president, she began to study the issue of bus segregation, which affected the many blacks who were the majority of riders on the city system. First, members appeared before the City Commission to report abuses on the buses, such as blacks who were first on the bus being required later to give up seats for whites as buses became crowded. The commission acted surprised but did nothing. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Women's Political Council」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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