Burks founded the Women’s Political Council (WPC). The council was the driving force behind the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955. However, Burks was working on the iconic bus strike as early as 1953. She just took her time to find the right opportunity to begin.
The boycott was just an idea at first, but as incidents surrounding the bus system increased, the urgency for action grew more critical.
Burks saw the case of Claudette Colvin, a teenager who refused to give up her seat in 1955, as the spark to push for change. The plans were in motion for a boycott months before Rosa Parks was arrested in December. The time had come.
The boycott lasted 381 days. The WPC approached Montgomery officials again about the unfair bus practices, resulting in the Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional. Burks turned a small group of Black women with a voice into victors.
Burks gathered our people’s voices and our dollars to apply pressure to the highest court in the land. And succeeded.