Trouble\u27s Clarion Call for Leaders: Jo Ann Robinson and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Turbulent times are part of the human experience. They provide what Useem calls the leadership moment when one is given the opportunity to define who one is (1998). For Jo Ann Robinson, that leadership moment came personally in 1949, and publicly in 1955 when she transformed her trauma into a pro-social action of change (Williams and Allen, 2015). This article is a historical narrative inquiry into the life of Robinson who launched the Montgomery boycott and helped start the civil rights movement. The article tells the rest of the story beyond Parks and King, and explores the question: How did Robinson lead? With no authority, she empowered more than 50,000 African American to stand up and change their world