Civil Rights' Unsung Hero

It has been called the birthplace of the modern Civil Rights Movement.

It was in Montgomery, Alabama that Dr. Martin Luther King led thousands of blacks to the state's Capitol to protest segregation and where Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man.

But the city offers a glimpse into the life of a civil rights hero many Americans know little about.

Montgomery is also home to the woman who spear-headed the city's infamous bus boycott, the same woman who also helped integrate public schools in Alabama's state capital.

Ninety-six-year-old Johnnie Rebbeca Carr is a woman who devoted her entire life to the civil rights struggle in Montgomery.

"When I grew up and began to see how people were being treated that's when I first became very conscious of it. I did not like it. I felt like people were just people," she said.

A close friend and classmate of Parks, Carr worked with King during the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott - a well organized movement that lasted for 381 days and made national headlines.

Segregation Declared Unconstitutional

It also led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that declared segregation on public transportation unconstitutional.

"It wasn't hard for me to get involved," Carr said. "After we came up with the bus transportation, then we started to move into other areas. We would organize to see how to attack those things that weren't right."

Because of Carr and her husband, the walls of segregation were torn down in the city's public schools.

"Arlen Carr vs. The Montgomery County Board of Education integrated the public schools."

But Carr doesn't take the credit for her work. She points back to her childhood faith and her belief in prayer.

"My mother was a devout Christian woman. A long time ago, going to that table and having meals and having blessings and things and having prayer service and Bible training and going to church and Sunday School - for that part of my training I know that's a part of what made me be able to do the things I was able to do," she said.

A Divine Appointment

Carr has seen many racial injustices in her lifetime, and has even been threatened for her stand against inequality.

Still, she sees that dark time in our nation's history as a divine appointment with God - a time when many African American leaders were on their knees in prayer meetings. It was a time when they asked God to lead them and guide them, to give them freedom and give them their rights.

Those same principles have kept her from being bitter.

"I probably would have had hate in me if I had not had the right type of training and background," she said.

Hers is a real faith that she thanks God for everyday.

Carr said, "I'm glad that God gave me opportunity to have such an idea in my mind. Until now, I can see anybody anywhere - I don't care who they are - they're just people to me. If it's not real with you, you can't do it."