Pies from Nowhere: How Georgia Gilmore Sustained the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Romito focuses on little-known civil rights activist Georgia Gilmore, a cook at the National Lunch Company in segregated Montgomery, Ala. Inspired by Rosa Parks’s refusal to give up her bus seat and the subsequent bus boycott, Gilmore organized a group of women to cook and sell food in their neighborhoods (“People always had to eat. So I made pies”). The proceeds secretly helped fund the boycott. Romito emphasizes how their venture came with risks; to protect the buyers and makers, Gilmore had people pay in cash and refused to divulge the names of the cooks and bakers, saying, “It came from nowhere.” Freeman creates bold compositions comprising the food, its makers, and even Martin Luther King Jr., who assisted Gilmore in starting her own cooking business. Romito concludes with the news of the Supreme Court outlawing bus segregation—followed by a suggestion that more work was to be done: “Georgia Gilmore kept right on cooking.” Ages 6–9. (Nov.)