For 381 days during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, there were various strategic actions and protests. Some of the most prominent civil rights organizations were involved in the movement, including the Club From Nowhere.
The Club From Nowhere stayed as mysterious as its name, at least to outsiders. For our people, Club members were as well known for their culinary skills as they were for funding protests, with the money coming from… nowhere.
At beauty salons, churches, and cab stands, members of the Club From Nowhere would sell food, including pies, pound cakes, and fried chicken sandwiches to participants in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In this way, the women didn’t raise the suspicions of their white employers. But their skills were much more than culinary.
The money the club raised was used to help pay for gas and repairs to the vehicles that Black people used to carpool during the bus boycott. “We felt that we had accomplished something that no one ever thought would ever happen in the city of Montgomery,” said Georgia Gilmore, the founder of the Club From Nowhere. And she was right.
The Club From Nowhere showed that when unified, we can organize to fight against racism while supporting each other in all of our unique ways. You don’t have to be a chef to cook up Black liberation.