MONROE COUNTY, Ga. — People in Monroe County gathered Wednesday for the unveiling of a new historical marker that pays homage to a forgotten woman in history.
Everyone knows the impact the actions of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. had on U.S. history, but do you know the woman who started it all by organizing the Montgomery bus boycott?
"One very important person is often overlooked and largely forgotten, the initiator of the boycott," said history teacher Mark Smith.
Her name is Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, and she's from Monroe County.
Smith works at Mary Persons High in Forsyth and also grew up in Monroe County. He says he first saw Robinson's name in a class in his third year of college. He saw that she was from Culloden and was "shocked" he had never heard of her.
Robinson was born in Culloden and later went on to teach in public schools in Macon.
She moved to Montgomery in 1949 to teach at a college. There, she was verbally abused by a public bus driver for sitting in the "whites only" section of the bus. She then made desegregating city buses one of her top priorities.
Robinson and two of her students copied thousands of leaflets and distributed them across the city, calling for a one-day boycott.
The boycott was said to be the "first successful large demonstration against segregation."
Smith further investigated Robinson's role in the one-day boycott, and became motivated to get her some recognition.
"I thought a historical marker would do that," he said. "This is the lady who began one of the biggest protests of the 20th Century... but people didn't remember the lady who started the whole thing, so I was like that needs to change, especially here locally."
Thomas Jordan is a relative of Robinson's. He and his family attended the ceremony.
Jordan says Smith was "kind" to work hard to get a historical marker up for Robinson. He also says that it's about time.
"I think there are a lot of unsung heroes," Jordan said. "If it wasn't for Jo Ann... people would never know who actually played a part in the Civil Rights Movement."
You can spot the marker as you drive down Highway 341 into Culloden.