Lucille Times (April 22, 1921 – August 16, 2021)
Lucille Times was born April 12, 1921, in Egypt (Hope Hull), Alabama. Her mother died when she was very young and she was raised by her father, William Sharp in a Christian home with six siblings. During her childhood years the family lived in Chicago, Detroit and Alabama. Mr. Sharp strongly imprinted two ideas on Lucille: The first: “You are no better than anyone else” and the second: “When you’re right don’t back down.”
Lucille married her husband, Charlie Times on February 3, 1939. She and Charlie joined the NAACP shortly after marriage, and in 1950, when the NAACP was banned the couple hosted meetings in their home, despite the danger. In 1950, both Lucille and her husband became registered voters. In 1952, they opened the Times Café (a.k.a. “Sugarhill”) on Holt Street, which operated continuously until 1986.
When Lucille lived in Detroit, she was part of a successful boycott of a butcher shop on 12th Street (later named Rosa Parks Blvd). The shop’s Polish proprietor sold some bad meat to a black man and refused to replace the meat or give him a refund. The neighborhood residents became indignant and refused to shop there and the shop went out of business in less than a month.
In a public conversation at the Rosa Parks Museum in 2017, Lucille recounted her story following her claim that she started the Montgomery bus boycott. On June 15, 1955, she drove her 1955 Buick LeSabre to the cleaners on the Mobile Highway. On the way, bus driver James Blake tried to force her car off of the road three times. After she pulled into the cleaners parking lot, Mr. Blake exited his bus and confronted her with, “you’re a black son of a bitch!” Lucille responded with “you’re a white son of a bitch!” and they immediately started physically fighting. Soon two motorcycle policemen arrived to break them up. At that time Lucille bit Mr. Blake’s left biceps.
After splitting them up one of the policemen talked to Mr. Blake separately and then approached Lucille angrily with “do you know that was a white man you called a ‘white son of a bitch’?” Lucille responded “do you know that I was a black woman that he called a 'black son of a bitch.’” The policeman became infuriated and shook his flashlight in Lucille’s face and said, “if you were a man I’d beat your head to jelly.”
That night E.D. Nixon came to the Times’ Holt Street house and Lucille told him the story. Mr. Nixon responded, “I cannot do anything about what happened off of the bus, something’s got to happen on the bus.” Lucille’s reply was, “I’m starting a boycott tomorrow!” Mr. Nixon said, “wait until after Thanksgiving when the sales come on and we’ll hit them in the pocket.” Lucille repeated emphatically, “I’m starting a boycott tomorrow!”
The next day Lucille began her boycott with her car. She drove people in her neighborhood to their destinations and would pick up people waiting at the bus stops. Her husband helped with his car and they had a “donations” jar at the café where people made contributions for gasoline. The café became a de facto transportation hub, and people would call the café when they needed rides.
Twice during this time, Mr. Nixon brought A. Philip Randolph to the Times’ Holt Street house and Lucille told him her story. During this time Charlie Times began meeting secretly with Mr. Nixon at the café and planning for a large organized boycott. Mr. Times even kept these meetings secret from Lucille until after the big boycott started in December.
At that time, Lucille continued driving people as she had been until the big boycott ended in December 1956.
Lucille Times died from COVID-19 in August 2021 at the age of 100
