Dr Madge Dresser, Social Historian
Madge Dresser researched the Bristol bus boycott story and published the pamphlet, Black and White on the Buses in 1986, with Bristol Broadsides publishing co-operative.
This meticulously researched text remains the definite guide to the Bristol Bus Boycott story and featured a number of views and perspectives on the event.
A video on this page shows Dr Madge Dresser, in 2011, in discussion with Mary Ingoldby and Rob Mitchell. Camera, Daniel Antelo.
She reads a correspondence between herself and foremost Caribbean historian CLR James in response to the pamphlet.
The booklet can also be found on the Victoria County History website.
Madge Dresser says
MADGE DRESSER SAYS:
“I am the grandchild of immigrants and I heard some really interesting stories from my grandparents. And then also I went to school and I read American History; there was nothing much about people like me. I always went to the index to see where the Jews were. When I went to the University of California, Los Angeles UCLA, I had some really inspirational teachers. I did one of the Black Studies courses in California and that was pretty inspirational looking at history which hadn’t been covered before.”
Dr Madge DresserSocial Historian
“I was at UCLA in the 1960s, so from 1966 to ’70. It wasn’t Berkeley but it was pretty close. We felt we were on the cusp of history and it was very exciting. It was the first time that Black and White students were actually talking to each other, not always amicably.
I had Angela Davis as a tutor and she used to come with her head banded and the Jackson brothers accompanying her. That was an interesting experience but there was also a Black Studies course that we went to and I remember that some to the African American girls would come with their hair in afro instead of being conked or straightened, to the applause of the audience.”
Dr Madge DresserSocial Historian
“…So every few weeks more girls would come with their hair done natural so it was a time we learnt as much outside the classroom as we learnt inside, with these very intense discussions with these people from different backgrounds who really had grown up in quite a segregated Los Angeles.”
Dr Madge DresserSocial Historian
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Journey to Justice
Madge Dresser has continued her commitment to working with history and social justice, as exemplified in projects such as Journey to Justice.