This historical marker stands outside Georgia Gilmore’s former home at 453 Dericote Street in Montgomery, Alabama. It contains three factual errors. Can you figure out what they are?

Note: Guessing is a good way to start, but to get the answers, you'll need to do more than guess. Once you have an idea of what might be wrong, use your history detective skills to find trustworthy sources and gather convincing evidence of what the sign should say.

Need a hint? Or two? Or three?

Hint #1

Hint #2

Hint #3

Ready to check your answers?

First error

Second error

Third error

Bonus error

If you live in Montgomery: When I was researching Sweet Justice, I contacted several historical groups in Montgomery to let them know about these errors. To my surprise, no one seemed to be in charge of the marker, not even the Alabama Historical Association, whose name appears at the bottom of the sign.

I hope someone in Montgomery will read this and launch a local campaign to get this important historical marker corrected. It would be a wonderful project for a class, or even for an entire school.

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Hint #1: The first error is of GRAVE importance.

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Hint #2: The second error might MOVE you to tears.

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Hint #3: If you have read Sweet Justice, the third error should be ARRESTINGLY obvious.

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Answers

First error: Georgia Gilmore's date of death.

The marker says she died March 3, 1990, but Gilmore's gravestone says she died six days later, on March 9, 1990.

A brief obituary which appeared in multiple newspapers on March 15 says she died Friday, and a quick search for a March 1990 calendar shows that March 9 was indeed a Friday, while of course March 3 wasn’t. Furthermore, her sister Betty is quoted as saying “Georgia died on a Friday, on the anniversary of the march.” (John T. Edge, “The Welcome Table,” Oxford American, January-February 2000).

The original march from Selma to Montgomery was attempted on March 7, 1965. Police brutally attacked the peaceful marchers with tear gas and clubs, driving them back. Two days later, on March 9, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., led another march to the site of the police attack on Edmund Pettus Bridge.

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Second error: Georgia Gilmore "lived in this house during the days of the Montgomery bus boycott."

As mentioned above, this historical marker stands outside Georgia Gilmore’s former home at 453 Dericote Street in Montgomery, Alabama. But during the Montgomery bus boycott, and for many years after, she did not yet live at 453. She lived down the street at 405 Dericote, in a house that was later torn down. (Sources: David L. Chappell, Inside Agitators: White Southerners in the Civil Rights Movement, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994; Frank Mastin, Jr., “Big Momma Gilmore’s Cooking Fueled Movement,” Montgomery Advertiser, Jan. 19, 1997.)

According to records at http://pjr.mc-ala.org/weblandrecord/, Gilmore purchased the new property on August 6, 1974. (Thanks to food writer Hanna Raskin for this information.) The Mastin article above also refers to her buying a vacant lot at 453 Dericote “in the early 1970s,” and a 1975 article referred to “her new home” (Vernon Jarrett, “Club from Nowhere Paid Way of Boycott,” Chicago Tribune, Dec. 4, 1975).

In fairness, Gilmore’s home at 405 was long ago torn down, so there was nowhere else they could have put the historical marker. However, saying she “lived in this house during the days of the Montgomery Bus Boycott” is definitely false. Everything she did during the Civil Rights Movement, from baking pies for the boycott to feeding JFK, happened at 405.

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Third error: Georgia Gilmore was "once arrested on a bus."

Out of 24 sources I consulted, the only one that mentions an arrest for Gilmore was a memoir written by boycott organizer Jo Ann Robinson, The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It. Since Robinson also describes Gilmore as a “solid and energetic” supporter of the boycott—the exact words on the marker—I’m convinced her book was also the source for the statement that Gilmore was “once arrested on a bus.”

But why do I believe it’s false? Well, when the boycott was declared illegal and Martin Luther King was arrested for leading it, Georgia Gilmore testified at his trial. I’ve read the testimony, in which she describes a nasty run-in she had with a verbally abusive bus driver who took her money and then drove off before she could re-board at the back.

In her testimony, Gilmore stated that she held her temper because “I have never been in any trouble whatsoever in my life.” So she wasn’t arrested then, and probably was not arrested any time before. I feel pretty sure that Robinson just misremembered this unpleasant incident as Gilmore—like Rosa Parks, Claudette Colvin, and so many others—once having been arrested on a bus.

Again, if anybody happens to live in Montgomery and wants to check arrest records, that would be great! I’d love to be even more sure.

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*Bonus error: "Dr." Ralph Abernathy?

When I tried this research challenge on a group of teachers, one of them pointed out that while the Rev. Ralph Abernathy had earned a master's degree, he had never earned a doctorate.

He did receive several honorary doctorates, but his New York Times obituary doesn't mention that, and refers to him as "Mr. Abernathy," while it (correctly) refers to Martin Luther King, Jr., as "Dr. King."

According to Robert Hickey of the Protocol School of Washington, recipients of honorary doctorates are properly addressed as "Dr." only by the university that awarded the honor. So the teacher was correct that "Dr. Ralph Abernathy" should not appear on the sign.

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