Lucille Times (April 22, 1921 – August 16, 2021) was an American

civil rights activist 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 o ...

. She was active in the struggle for

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 ...

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 ...

throughout her adult life. Times worked for the cause at a time when the city was at the center of the national movement.

Early life

Lucille was born on April 22, 1921, in

Hope Hull, Alabama Hope Hull, also known as McGehees Switch, is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Alabama, United States, southwest of Montgomery. It is home to the drive-through zoological park ''Alabama Safari Park''. History Hope Hull, a stop o ...

. Her mother died when Lucille was very young and she was raised by her father, William Sharp in a Christian home with six siblings. During her childhood years the family lived in Chicago, Detroit and Alabama. Mr. Sharp strongly imprinted two ideas on Lucille: The first: "You are no better than anyone else" and the second: "When you're right don't back down." Lucille married her husband, Charlie Times on February 3, 1939. She and Charlie joined the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

shortly after marriage, and in 1950, when the NAACP was banned the couple hosted meetings in their home, despite the danger. In 1950, both Lucille and her husband became registered voters. In 1952, they opened the Times Café (a.k.a. "Sugarhill") on Holt Street, which operated continuously until 1986.

Activism

In Detroit

When Times lived in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

, she was part of a successful

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict som ...

of a butcher shop on 12th Street (later named Rosa Parks Blvd). The shop's Polish proprietor sold some bad meat to a black man and refused to replace the meat or give him a refund. The neighborhood residents became indignant and refused to shop there and the shop went out of business in less than a month.

Montgomery bus boycott

In a public conversation at the

Rosa Parks Museum The Rosa Parks Museum is located on the Troy University at Montgomery satellite campus, in Montgomery, Alabama. It has information, exhibits, and some artifacts from the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott. This museum is named after civil rights activi ...

in 2017, Times recounted her story following her claim that she started 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 ...

. On June 15, 1955, she drove her 1955

Buick Special The Buick Special was an automobile produced by Buick. It was usually Buick's lowest-priced model, starting out as a full-size car in 1936 and returning in 1961 (after a two-year hiatus) as a mid-size. The Special was built for several decades and ...

to the cleaners on the Mobile Highway. On the way, bus driver James Blake tried to force her car off of the road three times. After she pulled into the cleaners parking lot, Blake exited his bus and confronted her with, "you're a black son of a bitch!" Times responded with "you're a white son of a bitch!" and they immediately started physically fighting. Soon two motorcycle policemen arrived to break them up. At that time Times bit Blake's left biceps. After splitting them up one of the policemen talked to Blake separately and then approached Times angrily with "do you know that was a white man you called a 'white son of a bitch'?" Times responded "do you know that I was a black woman that he called a 'black son of a bitch.'" The policeman became infuriated and shook his flashlight in Times' face and said, "if you were a man I'd beat your head to jelly." That night

E. D. Nixon Edgar Daniel Nixon (July 12, 1899 – February 25, 1987), known as E. D. Nixon, was an American civil rights leader and union organizer in Alabama who played a crucial role in organizing the landmark Montgomery bus boycott there in 1955. The boy ...

came to the Times' Holt Street house and Times told him the story. Nixon responded, "I cannot do anything about what happened off of the bus, something's got to happen on the bus." Times' reply was, "I'm starting a boycott tomorrow!" Nixon said, "wait until after Thanksgiving when the sales come on and we'll hit them in the pocket." Times repeated emphatically, "I'm starting a boycott tomorrow!" The next day Times, began her boycott with her car. She drove people in her neighborhood to their destinations and would pick up people waiting at the bus stops. Her husband helped with his car and they had a "donations" jar at the café where people made contributions for gasoline. The café became a ''de facto'' transportation hub, and people would call the café when they needed rides. Twice during this time, Nixon brought A. Philip Randolph to the Times' Holt Street house and Times told him her story. During this time Charlie Times began meeting secretly with Nixon at the café and planning for a large organized boycott. Mr. Times even kept these meetings secret from his wife until after the big boycott started in December. Times continued driving people as she had been until the big boycott ended in December 1956.

Death

Times died from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

on August 16, 2021, and was funeralized at St Jude Catholic Church in Montgomery.

References

External links

The Montgomery Bus Boycott website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Times, Lucille 1921 births 2021 deaths African-American activists 20th-century African-American women Activists from Montgomery, Alabama American civil rights activists Women civil rights activists American centenarians African-American centenarians Women centenarians Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Alabama African-American Catholics Roman Catholic activists 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women