"I won't respond," the young black woman told the judge, "until you call me Miss Hamilton." [View all]

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/11/30/567177501/when-miss-meant-so-much-more-how-one-woman-fought-alabama-and-won?fbclid=IwAR2QBU0mJ7fmtq4nuVZxLiR2n8AuzYTO2gEEMooPyKp9WAXNgA0Z5Gu-36E

June 1963. Gadsden, Ala. Mary Hamilton, 28, stood in a courtroom before a judge.

She was a black civil rights activist, arrested for nonviolent protest. And the judge was losing his patience.

The atmosphere in Gadsden that summer "was truly frightening and terrifying," says Colin Morris, a history professor at Manhattanville College. "The Klan was highly active. On more than one occasion there had been attacks in Gadsden."

But Hamilton wasn't frightened. She was furious. She refused to answer the prosecutor's questions.

"I won't respond," she said, "until you call me Miss Hamilton."

SNIP