She attended a meeting in Birmingham, Alabama. Back in 1938, state law prohibited blacks and whites from sitting together at public gatherings. She walked in and sat on the black side with her friend, civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune. The police informed her she was breaking the law and so she picked up her chair and placed it in the center aisle.
In 1958, she received a call from the FBI saying they couldn't guarantee her safety as she was about to fly to Tennessee to speak at a civil-rights workshop. The KKK had put a $25,000 bounty on her head. "We can’t protect you.” they said. “I didn’t ask for your protection,” she replied. “I have a commitment. I’m going.” she met up with a friend, a seventy-one-year-old white woman and drove off into the night with only a loaded pistol placed on the front seat between them. She was seventy-four.
She was afraid of public speaking, but gave an estimated 1400 speeches, with minimal notes. She is still known as one of the most popular orators of all time.
