“I won’t respond until you call me Miss Hamilton.”
That declaration from civil rights activist Mary Hamilton in 1963 led to a U.S. Supreme Court case about whether Black women were entitled to be addressed the same as white women.
Born in 1935, Hamilton grew up in Iowa and Colorado. In the early 1960s, she joined the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), which was planning a voter education project in Louisiana.
According to NPR, Hamilton recalled her thoughts during an oral history interview: “It’s happening! We’re finally fighting back! We’re gonna fight … we’re not gonna take it any more!”
According to 64 Parishes, Hamilton joined other women who “proved to be integral and influential members of CORE’s Louisiana field staff … In Louisiana, women’s participation was vital to the success of the civil rights movement…”
Hamilton participated in the Freedom Rides, which challenged segregation on interstate buses and bus terminals. She also helped to register Black voters and was a field secretary before becoming CORE’s Southern regional director.
Because of her activism, Hamilton often was arrested. During a 1963 hearing in Gadsden, Ala., she refused to respond to a white prosecutor’s questions because he continued to address her by her first name instead of “Miss Hamilton.”
The judge fined Hamilton $50 for contempt of court and sent her to jail for five days. Her appeal reached the Supreme Court, which ruled in her favor.
“The (1964) decision established that people of color are entitled to the same courtesies and honorifics as white people,” the Thurgood Marshall Institute states. “Hamilton’s victory made headlines around the country …and immediately made her one of the civil rights heroes of the era.” Her story was on the cover of JET magazine and appeared in the New York Times.
Hamilton died in 2002 after a seven-year cancer battle.
For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives.
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