I consider myself a lifelong learner, but I find studying history incredibly humbling because there is so much I don’t know. Imagine my surprise when last week at the Youth Media Awards the American Library Association named Sweet Justice: Georgia Gilmore and the Montgomery Bus Boycott a Sibert Honor Book. The Sibert Award recognizes authors and illustrators of distinguished informational books.
For all the time I’ve spent learning about Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Georgia Gilmore’s was not a name I’d heard, so I knew I needed to do some reading to find out exactly who she was. I’m fascinated by what I’ve learned, and I know you will be too. Here are some of the resources I explored.
- NPR Story: Meet The Fearless Cook Who Secretly Fed — And Funded — The Civil Rights Movement
- NYTimes Article: Overlooked No More: Georgia Gilmore, Who Fed and Funded the Montgomery Bus Boycott
- The Encyclopedia of Alabama – Entry on Georgia Gilmore
- The Heroine Collective: Georgia Gilmore – Civil Rights Activist
In addition to these resources, there is ANOTHER chidren’s book about her. It is Pies From Nowhere: How Georgia Gilmore Sustained The Montgomery Bus Boycott.
I’m sorry I didn’t know about Georgia Gilmore before now, but now that I do, I’ll be digging into the Supreme Court cases she was a party to so I can learn more about her and her work as a civil rights activist.