Mae Jemison

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Lore & Background

Alice Mae Lee Jemison was born on October 9, 1901, in Silver Creek, New York, near the Cattaraugus Reservation. Her mother, Elnora E. Seneca, was from a prominent Seneca family, and her father, Daniel A. Lee, was 'a cabinetmaker of Cherokee descent.' She graduated from Silver Creek High School in 1919 and married LeVerne Leonard Jamison, a steelworker from the reservation. They had two children: LeVerne L. Jemison (born 1920) and Jeanne M. Jemison (born 1923), who later became a judge in the Seneca Nation. Jemison separated from her husband in 1928 due to his chronic alcoholism. To support her mother and children, she worked as a beautician, salesperson, factory worker, clerk, peddler, dressmaker, and theater usher. Her early goal was to become an attorney, but she could not afford law school. In the early 1930s, she wrote articles for the Buffalo Evening News and worked part time for Seneca President Ray Jimerson. In March 1930, the murder of Colthilde Marchand led to charges against two Iroquois women. Jemison defended them when the District Attorney called it an 'Indian' crime and conducted warrantless searches. She worked with Chief Clinton Rickard and President Ray Jimerson to appeal to political leaders, including U.S. Vice President Charles Curtis, and the BIA arranged for the U.S. Attorney to help represent the defendants. In 1931, Jemison was the spokesperson for the Seneca when they rejected a settlement offer from New York State officials that would have given the Seneca $75,000 and the Cayuga $247,000. She later moved to Washington, D.C., and wrote for the Washington Star.

Reader's Guide

Jemison's attacks on BIA Commissioner John Collier centered on his ideas about Native self-governance. She fought for a diversity of Indigenous lifestyles, opposing Collier's monolithic, romantic notion of primitive people living in pueblos. Her ideas were influenced by Carlos Montezuma and Joseph W. Latimer. In May 1933, she criticized Collier for appointing Commissioners Rhoades and Scattergood without a hearing or Native testimony. She argued 'mainly against the principle of government by a bureau in which Indians have no voice.' She and her allies viewed the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 as a violation of treaty rights and a denial of tribal sovereignty. She also fought the federal government's plans to subject the Seneca to the Selective Service Act of 1940, insisting authority belonged to the Iroquois Confederacy. In November 1938, she testified before the Dies Committee that nine BIA and Interior Department officials, including Interior Secretary Harold Ickes, were members of the ACLU, known to the committee as a Communist front. Secretary Ickes called the committee's work 'a side show' and Dies an 'outstanding zany.' Collier said Jemison's organization was a 'trouble-making pro-Nazi racket.' Historians note her attacks were often unfair or could be described as red-baiting. In 1940, she said the BIA represented 'communism and distinctly Russian in variety.' When she needed financial support in 1937, she received support from extremist critics of FDR, including anti-Semites James True and William Dudley Pelley. In January 1939, she testified against Felix Frankfurter's Supreme Court nomination, sobbing and pounding the table, declaring Frankfurter was partly responsible for attempts to 'communize the American Indians.' She also defended the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, successfully moving the Blue Ridge Parkway to a less disruptive route, and published a newsletter, The First American.

Did You Know?

• Jemison's daughter Jeanne became a judge in the Seneca Nation.
• In 1931, Jemison was the spokesperson for the Seneca when they rejected a settlement offer of $75,000 from New York State.
• She testified before the Dies Committee in November 1938, claiming nine BIA and Interior officials were ACLU members.
• In January 1939, she testified against Felix Frankfurter's Supreme Court nomination, sobbing and pounding the table.
• She successfully moved the path of the Blue Ridge Parkway to a less disruptive route for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

The Baton Rouge Bus Boycott, 1953

Reverend T. J. Jemison, who had long been disturbed by watching Black riders forced to stand while empty seats sat unused in the front of the bus, had already testified before the City Council in February against the increase. The Council responded with Ordinance 222, a first-come, first-served seating rule, but white drivers routinely ignored it. Jemison stepped in, citing the ordinance, and the driver was suspended. A union strike followed, and the state Attorney General declared the ordinance unconstitutional. On June 19, Jemison called for a full boycott. Within days, the city's buses ran nearly empty. The six-day action ended on June 25 with a compromise that, while preserving some segregation, secured more usable seats for Black riders.

The Blueprint That Shaped Montgomery

Jemison and the leaders of the United Defense League built a massive private carpool network of free rides to keep Black residents mobile during the boycott. They also held nightly mass meetings with the community to review the day's difficulties and track progress.

A Minister's Making in Selma and Beyond

In 1949, he received his first pastoral call to Mt.

Four Decades of National Religious Leadership

In 1957, he was among the founding members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization that would become a central engine of the civil rights struggle. He first joined the organization's leadership as its secretary in 1953, a role he held for nearly three decades. In 1982, the Convention elevated him to its presidency, a position he occupied until 1994. Through those years, Jemison helped steer the policies and priorities of a denomination whose congregations spanned the nation, giving him a platform that extended well beyond any single city or state. His leadership at the NBC placed him at the intersection of faith, community organizing, and the broader fight for racial justice in America.