Daughter of the Boycott: Carrying On a Montgomery Family's Civil Rights Legacy

(Hardback)

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In 1950, before Montgomery knew Martin Luther King Jr., before Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger, before the city's famous boycott, a Negro man named Hilliard Brooks was shot and killed by a white policeman during an encounter involving a ride on a city bus.

Brooks and Thomas Gray played football together as kids. Gray and other fellow veterans, outraged about an unjustifiable fatal shooting, protested, eventually staging a major march against police brutality downtown. Five years later, Gray protested again, this time against the unjust treatment of Negroes on the city's segregated buses. Daughter of the Boycott is Karen Gray Houston's story of her family's involvement in the historic Montgomery bus boycott, the action that kick-started the civil rights movement. Her father, Thomas W. Gray Sr., and her uncle, Fred D. Gray, were boycott leaders. Fred, fresh out of law school, represented Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and rarely mentioned teenage activist Claudette Colvin, a named plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle , the Supreme Court case that forced Alabama to desegregate its buses. Only as an adult did Houston begin to appreciate how, in the face of threats and bombings, their bold, selfless actions helped change the nation's racial climate, opening doors of opportunity for her and countless others. They were opportunities that opened previously blocked segregated doors and allowed her, an African American woman, to embark on a career as a broadcast journalist. Daughter of the Boycott takes the reader on a journey through the struggles Houston's family faced before and after the boycott, including the violence and setbacks. With the trained eye of an investigative reporter, she gives voice to the lives affected by this historical moment.

Reviews

"There are many narratives yet to come out of the galvanizing civil rights movement. Karen Gray Houston's tender and powerful memoir is one such story." -- Wil Haygood , author of The Butler: A Witness to History , Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America , In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr. , Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson
"Our home was targeted by Ku Klux Klan bombings three times because of our activism in the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott. I was a young white pastor of an all-black Lutheran church. More than 60 years later, as you will find in Daughter of the Boycott the true story of that fight for racial justice is still unfolding. Long lost police records were recently discovered, including an appeal bond for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was charged with conspiracy for his participation on the boycott. (However, the actual evidence about the bombings had been destroyed.) Our family and friends purchased at an auction a note written by our dear friend Rosa Parks, detailing how she was awakened by the bombing and raced to our parsonage to be of assistance. For us, this Gray family memoir is personal, taking you on an amazing journey, introducing you to people who played important behind-the-scene roles, unearthing untold stories. Our family became lifelong friends of Karen Gray Houston's father and mother, Thomas and Juanita Gray, and Karen's uncle, attorney Fred Gray, both leaders in the boycott. All of us worked closely with Dr. King, who dreamed of a Beloved Community, where all people would accept and respect each other with love, regardless of the differences that divide us. The book speaks to real experiences of being black in America, reminding us of important past events that force the country to own up to its history." -- Robert S. Graetz Jr. , author of A White Preacher's Message on Race and Reconciliation
"Thank you, Karen Gray Houston, for your insightful and inspiring visit with the true heroes of the civil rights movement: the ordinary citizens who stood up at great risk to bring the injustice of Jim Crow segregation to an end so that all Americans can go forward." Clarence Page , Pulitzer Prize--winning Chicago Tribune columnist
" Daughter of the Boycott is more than a beautiful and moving memoir, it's an important work of history. With passion and insight, Karen Gray Houston tells an unforgettable story." Jonathan Eig , author of Ali: A Life and Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season
"Everything Karen Gray Houston accomplished as a journalist prepared her to tell this story in a truly authentic and masterful way, as no one else can tell it." A'Lelia Bundles , author of On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker
"We do not have enough written words illustrating that the civil rights movement did not emerge from nowhere, and the strength of family and community that pushed it forward. Karen Gray Houston's Daughter of the Boycott teaches this. She is to be praised for doing so and admired for doing it so well." Charles E. Cobb Jr. , veteran of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and author of This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed
"a welcome reminder that profound social changes can also result from the quiet heroism of people with unshakable commitment to nonviolence." Kirkus Reviews
"The book speaks to real experiences of being black in America, reminding us of important past events that force the country to own up to its history." Robert S. Graetz Jr. , author of A White Preacher's Message on Race and Reconciliation

Author Bio

Karen Gray Houston is an award-winning broadcast journalist whose career has spanned more than four decades, including 20 years as a local news reporter for Washington, DC's WTTG-TV, Fox-5. She was a correspondent for NBC News covering the Reagan White House and the US Capitol, an anchor for the ABC Radio Network, as well as a reporter/anchor for WTOP News Radio in DC and WHDH-AM in Boston. She lives near Washington, DC.