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Who was Virginia and Clifford?
Virginia Durr was a well-born white Southern lady who devoted most of her life to campaigning for civil rights in the United States. In the 1950s, she and her husband, lawyer Clifford Durr, were in the thick of the civil rights struggle in Alabama.
What did Virginia Durr help Rosa attend?
In December 1955, Virginia and Clifford Durr bailed Rosa Parks out of jail after she was arrested in Montgomery for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on one of the segregated buses. Shortly after, Virginia helped to organize the Montgomery bus boycott. She also wrote many essays on the civil rights struggle.
Was Virginia Durr white?
Durr was born in Birmingham, Alabama, where she was raised by black women but was also taught that the Ku Klux Klan were protectors of southern womanhood. One of her grandfathers had owned a plantation and slaves, while the other was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
How did the civil rights movement change Alabama?
Alabama was the site of many key events in the American civil rights movement. Rosa Parks’s stand against segregation on a public bus led to the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the violence targeted toward the Freedom Riders of the early 1960s drew the nation’s attention to racial hatred in Alabama.
Who is Clifford Durr?
Clifford Durr Clifford Durr (1899-1975) was a lawyer and nationally respected defender of civil liberties during the post-World War II Red Scare, a supporter of the civil rights movement, and counsel to civil rights icon Rosa Parks.
Why did Nixon think Rosa Parks was the right person to bring the lawsuit?
On December 1, 1955, when fellow NAACP member Rosa Parks refused once again to surrender her seat on a bus to a white passenger, she was arrested. Nixon believed that the event could spur a boycott of the area’s bus lines and be processed via legal channels, convincing Parks of the power of her case.
What did the Montgomery Improvement Association do?
The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was established on December 5, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama as a grassroots movement to fight for civil rights for African Americans and specifically for the desegregation of the buses in Alabama’s capitol city.
What was the result of Bloody Sunday in 1965?
On March 7, 1965 around 600 people crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in an attempt to begin the Selma to Montgomery march. State troopers violently attacked the peaceful demonstrators in an attempt to stop the march for voting rights.
What did Clifford Durr do?
What did Clifford Durr go on to do?
This is what launched the 1955-1956 Montgomery bus boycott. Durr was born into a patrician Alabama family. After studying at the University of Alabama, being president of his class, he went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar….
| Clifford Durr | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Lawyer |
Who was Virginia Foster Durr and what did she do?
Virginia Foster Durr. Virginia Foster Durr (August 6, 1903 – February 24, 1999) was an American white civil rights activist and lobbyist. She was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1903 to Dr. Sterling Foster, an Alabama Presbyterian minister, and Ann Patterson Foster.
How old was Virginia Durr when she was born?
Virginia Durr was born Virginia Foster in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1903. Her family was solidly traditional and middle class; as the daughter of a clergyman, she was part of the white establishment of the time.
How did Virginia Foster Durr and Rosa Parks meet?
Virginia Durr met Rosa Parks through close friend E.D. Nixon, who worked with Parks during his time working with the NAACP. Durr employed Rosa Parks part-time as a seamstress; she sewed for Virginia and her children, and after a while Virginia considered Parks a close friend.
What did Clifford and Virginia Durr do for a living?
In 1941, Clifford Durr transferred to the Federal Communications Commission. The Durrs remained very active in both Democratic politics and reform efforts. Virginia was involved in the circle that included Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune. She became the vice president of the Southern Conference.