Meta Ellis has dedicated her entire life to advocating for civil rights including rights for women, the LGBTQ+ community and animals. She is the director of Montgomery Pride United and Co-founder of the Bayard Rustin Community Center in Montgomery, Alabama.
Raised by activist parents, she attended her first protest at just three years old. She is the oldest daughter of one of the few white families who supported the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation in the public transit system of Montgomery initiated in 1955 after Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat on a Montgomery city bus to a white man. Their support of this movement led to abuse and harassment and the family home was bombed twice by the Ku Klux Klan.
Ellis credits her mother as instilling in her the belief in the dignity and equality of others, and the boycott experience for creating an awareness that shaped her worldview.
“[I learned] that people working together can really make a difference, but a majority of time things have to get really bad before people understand that and are motivated to work together,” Ellis said to the Montgomery Advisor.
Ellis and her wife, Emma McDaniel-Ellis, founded MPU in 2015 to advocate and provide resources for the local LGBTQ+ community. The safe space is known for hosting support groups, supplying emergency food and hygiene products, masks and clothing. It offers senior services, sexual wellness workshops and mental health support, as well as accommodating community gatherings for progressive groups.
Ellis is dedicated to her community outside of MPU as well. She has spent months surveying Montgomery’s homeless population to better understand their needs and has worked to distribute a $10,000 lawsuit settlement, won from the city after MPU and others sued in 2020 over punitive measures taken against homeless people in the city.
Ellis worked for many years as a certified nurse’s aide, home health aide and psychiatric technician and specialized in hospice care. She has been honored with a Community Hero Award from the Montgomery Advertiser, was a co-recipient of the Billy Jack Gaither Humanitarian Award and was named as one of USA Today’s Women of the Year.