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T. J. Jemison
Theodore Judson Jemison (August 1, 1918 – November 15, 2013), better known as T. J. Jemison, was minister of Mount Zion First Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in June 1953 when he led a bus boycott to protest the city's segregated public transit. It was the first boycott of its kind in the modern civil rights movement. He quickly organized a free-ride system to offer car transportation to the city's black residents while the boycott was in effect. This system was studied by Martin Luther King Jr. and served as a model two years later during the Montgomery bus boycott.
In 1957, Jemison was one of the founding members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. From 1982 to 1994, he served as president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, which was the nation's largest African-American religious organization.
Theodore Judson Jemison was born in August 1918 in Selma, Alabama. He was the youngest of six children of Henrietta and David V. Hemison. Theodore came from a family of prominent ministers and strong churchgoing women. His father, the Reverend Jemison, was pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church. Theodore attended local segregated public schools.
He earned a bachelor's degree from Alabama State University, a historically black college in the state capital of Montgomery, where he joined the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. To prepare for the ministry, he obtained a divinity degree at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia. He later did graduate study at New York University in New York City.
In 1949, Jemison was first called as a minister by Mt. Zion First Baptist Church in Baton Rouge. At the time, his father was President of the National Baptist Convention, the association of African-American Baptist churches established in 1895. As a new minister, T. J. Jemison was focused mainly on internal church matters, such as fundraising and overseeing construction of a new church building. Within a few years, however, he would become involved in a pivotal early action of the civil rights movement.
In 1950, Baton Rouge had ended black-owned buses, thereby requiring all city residents to use the public transit system that enforced segregated seating. It was racially segregated by law; in practice, black citizens had to sit at the back half of the bus or stand, even if seats in the front "white" section were empty. Jemison said later he was struck by "watching buses pass by his church and seeing black people standing in the aisles, not allowed by law to sit down in seats reserved for whites. 'I thought that was just out of order, that was just cruel'."
African Americans, who comprised 80 percent of the bus passengers in Baton Rouge, were fed up with standing on buses while "white" seats remained empty, particularly after the bus company raised fares from ten to fifteen cents in January 1953. Rev. Jemison took up the issue with the Baton Rouge City Council; he testified on February 11, 1953 against the fare increase and asked for an end of the practice of reserving so many seats for whites. The City Council partially met his demand, without abolishing segregation per se. They passed Ordinance 222, which stipulated a first come-first served policy: it allowed black passengers to board the bus from the back and take any empty seats available, while white passengers boarded from the front. In actuality though, the white drivers largely ignored the ordinance and continued to pressure and harass blacks into sitting in the rear of the buses.
On June 15, 1953, Martha White tested Ordinance 222 by taking an empty bus seat in a front row that was traditionally reserved for whites (Jemison had tried a similar test himself recently). The enraged bus driver threatened to have her arrested and called the police. Jemison intervened on her behalf, saying she was acting legally within the City Council ordinance. A bus company manager showed up and ordered the driver to comply with the new law. When the driver refused, the manager suspended him. This triggered a strike by the bus drivers' union. The strike ended four days later when state Attorney General Fred S. LeBlanc declared Ordinance 222 unconstitutional on the grounds that it violated the state's compulsory segregation laws.
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T. J. Jemison
Theodore Judson Jemison (August 1, 1918 – November 15, 2013), better known as T. J. Jemison, was minister of Mount Zion First Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in June 1953 when he led a bus boycott to protest the city's segregated public transit. It was the first boycott of its kind in the modern civil rights movement. He quickly organized a free-ride system to offer car transportation to the city's black residents while the boycott was in effect. This system was studied by Martin Luther King Jr. and served as a model two years later during the Montgomery bus boycott.
In 1957, Jemison was one of the founding members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. From 1982 to 1994, he served as president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, which was the nation's largest African-American religious organization.
Theodore Judson Jemison was born in August 1918 in Selma, Alabama. He was the youngest of six children of Henrietta and David V. Hemison. Theodore came from a family of prominent ministers and strong churchgoing women. His father, the Reverend Jemison, was pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church. Theodore attended local segregated public schools.
He earned a bachelor's degree from Alabama State University, a historically black college in the state capital of Montgomery, where he joined the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. To prepare for the ministry, he obtained a divinity degree at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia. He later did graduate study at New York University in New York City.
In 1949, Jemison was first called as a minister by Mt. Zion First Baptist Church in Baton Rouge. At the time, his father was President of the National Baptist Convention, the association of African-American Baptist churches established in 1895. As a new minister, T. J. Jemison was focused mainly on internal church matters, such as fundraising and overseeing construction of a new church building. Within a few years, however, he would become involved in a pivotal early action of the civil rights movement.
In 1950, Baton Rouge had ended black-owned buses, thereby requiring all city residents to use the public transit system that enforced segregated seating. It was racially segregated by law; in practice, black citizens had to sit at the back half of the bus or stand, even if seats in the front "white" section were empty. Jemison said later he was struck by "watching buses pass by his church and seeing black people standing in the aisles, not allowed by law to sit down in seats reserved for whites. 'I thought that was just out of order, that was just cruel'."
African Americans, who comprised 80 percent of the bus passengers in Baton Rouge, were fed up with standing on buses while "white" seats remained empty, particularly after the bus company raised fares from ten to fifteen cents in January 1953. Rev. Jemison took up the issue with the Baton Rouge City Council; he testified on February 11, 1953 against the fare increase and asked for an end of the practice of reserving so many seats for whites. The City Council partially met his demand, without abolishing segregation per se. They passed Ordinance 222, which stipulated a first come-first served policy: it allowed black passengers to board the bus from the back and take any empty seats available, while white passengers boarded from the front. In actuality though, the white drivers largely ignored the ordinance and continued to pressure and harass blacks into sitting in the rear of the buses.
On June 15, 1953, Martha White tested Ordinance 222 by taking an empty bus seat in a front row that was traditionally reserved for whites (Jemison had tried a similar test himself recently). The enraged bus driver threatened to have her arrested and called the police. Jemison intervened on her behalf, saying she was acting legally within the City Council ordinance. A bus company manager showed up and ordered the driver to comply with the new law. When the driver refused, the manager suspended him. This triggered a strike by the bus drivers' union. The strike ended four days later when state Attorney General Fred S. LeBlanc declared Ordinance 222 unconstitutional on the grounds that it violated the state's compulsory segregation laws.