Robinson, JoAnn Gibson

Robinson, JoAnn Gibson (1912- ), African American civil rights activist who was a leader in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Robinson was born in Culloden, Georgia. She attended Fort Valley State College and earned an M.A. degree in English from Atlanta University in 1948, after which she taught at Alabama State College in Montgomery, where she became active in the Civil Rights Movement.

She became the president of the Women's Political Council (WPC), an organization composed of mainly middle-class black women and committed to increasing African American participation in civic affairs.

The WPC challenged Montgomery's policy of segregated seating on public transportation by organizing a successful boycott after the arrest of African American civil rights activist Rosa Parks for violating segregation laws in 1955. Robinson left Alabama State College in 1960 and taught English in Los Angeles, California, until retiring in 1976.

Robinson's 1987 memoir The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It was awarded special acclaim by the Southern Association for Women's Historians. Her book emphasized the important role women played in the daily organization and the planned activities of the Civil Rights Movement.