Saturday, February 23, 2008

In Memoriam: Johnnie Carr, Civil Rights Activist

Longtime civil rights activist Johnnie Carr has died at the age of 97. Carr joined her childhood friend Rosa Parks in the Montgomery bus boycott.

Carr succeeded the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association in 1967, a post she held at her death.

She played a prominent role in 2005 on the 50th anniversary of Parks' refusal to give up her bus seat, speaking to thousands of schoolchildren who marched to the Capitol.

"Look back, but march forward," Carr urged the huge crowd of young people. [MSNBC]

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