Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America

by Michael Harriot

In 1958, a young Howard Law School student was riding the bus to Selma for Christmas break when the bus stopped at a Trailways bus station in Virginia to allow the passengers to eat. Bruce, the law student, posted up at the “whites only” counter just like everyone else. When authorities told him to leave, Bruce wouldn’t budge. He was arrested and convicted, but he wouldn’t stop until his conviction was overturned. His mother called an NAACP lawyer she knew and made that friend promise to fight for her son, even if they had to go to the Supreme Court. Those cops had no idea that Bruce Boynton’s mother was infamous organizer Amelia Boynton, and that lawyer pal was none other than Thurgood Marshall. The landmark Supreme Court case of Bruce George Washington Carver Boynton v. Virginia overturned segregation on interstate commerce, changing the course of history forever. Shortly thereafter, young activists Ralph Abernathy, Stokely Carmichael, John Lewis, and others gained prominence on the Freedom Rides—a joint effort by CORE and the SNCC to enforce Boynton v. Virginia.