After Rosa Parks was arrested for not
leaving her seat on a Montgomery
bus, The Montgomery Improvement
Association (MIA) started a boycott on
the Montgomery bus line. At the time,
Gilmore also stopped using the bus and
became involved with the MIA. As a
result, she lost her job as a chef, however,
Martin Luther King saw her courageous
involvement and decided to help her set
up her own restaurant in her home.
This was the beginning of her journey
as an underground hero. Gilmore started
cooking to feed the civil rights party
members and boycotters part of the MIA,
while fiercely defending equal rights and
actively boycotting the Montgomery bus
line. She also used the funds gained from
her cooking to fund the civil rights party
campaign.
Gilmore went on to create 'The Club
From Nowhere', which involved a group
of women, black and white baking &
selling pies, cookies and cakes in beauty
salons. Gilmore created it in all anonymity
so that it would avoid conflicts.
Eventually, the group became so popular
that it generated a significant amount of
funds to the Montgomery bus boycott.
Speaking about the club In the Eyes On
The Price documentary in 1986 Gilmore
said: "Well, in order to make the mass
meeting and the boycott be a success
and that keep the carpool running, we
decided that the people's on the south
side would get a club and the peoples on
the west side would get a club and so we
decided that we wouldn't name the club
anything, we'd just say it was the club
from nowhere and I had a lot of white
peoples who contributed."
Consequently, Georgia Gilmore
teaches us that the anyone can bring
about change, whether that be in your
community or the world. All it takes is a
big idea, some self-belief and taking the
initiative.
GUESTLIST
2018 / ISSUE 108
13
GUESTLIST
It doesn't matter who you are, where you come from,
we are pretty sure you all enjoy sitting down and eating
delicious food. Well, this is how badass chef Georgia
Gilmore helped bring about a revolution during the
Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama in 1955.
MEET GEORGIA GILMORE THE
FEMALE HERO WHO CONTRIBUTED
TO ENDING TRANSPORT
SEGREGATION
INDGI LIVES
