Find out about the Montgomery bus boycott that started the Civil Rights era and catapulted a young preacher named King to international attention.
On December 1st, 1955 a forty two year old black woman by the name of Rosa Parks boarded a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. That simple act was to precipitate a mass movement that would eventually bring the city to its knees and win a stunning victory for the Black people of America. Rosa sat in the first seat of the black section in the segregated bus. When the bus filled and the driver ordered her to move back so that a white man could take her place, she refused. Rosa Parks, an upstanding citizen, was arrested.
For some time leaders of the Black community in Montgomery had been trying to stage a protest against the segregation of busses. Head of the Women's Council Jo Ann Robinson in particular had attempted to get a protest going, only to be told by her peers that "˜this was just the way things were [done] in Montgomery.' Now, however, she, along with others saw the arrest of Rosa Parks as the spark that could unite the community in boycott. On the weekend of December 3 and 4, Jo Ann Robinson met with a couple of local Baptist preachers, Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King Junior, as well as NAACP official E.D. Nixon, to discuss a mass protest at the arrest. They arranged for 40,000 handbills to be printed and handed out among the black community. Black ministers preached the message to their flocks on Sunday, December 5th. The boycott began immediately after.
On Monday December 6th the organizers of the protest nervously went out to observe how full the busses were. They were stunned to find that the black community had almost totally supported the bus system. The busses had a drop off rate of 90%. A meeting was called for that evening during which started the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). Martin Luther King Jr was named President. The question of whether the boycott should continue was put to the mass audience. Overwhelmingly they agreed that it should; but, no one knew how long it could last.
After four days of protest the MIA met with city officials to try to work out some concessions. They were met with stubborn refusal to cooperate as well as a city imposition that any cab driver charging less than 45 cents minimum fare would lose his license. Since the start of the protest, black cab drivers had been charging just 10 cents per fare. In response to this the MIA organized an elaborate system of transportation among the black citizenry involving car pooling.
As the boycott wore on, the white community tries everything to put an end to it. As well as direct intimidation, they attempted to divide the community. At one time it began to be reported that the boycott was over. If the black community believed this, they would begin to use the busses again. MIA members had to rush around and convince the people that the protest was still in effect. Having failed to break the boycott by these means the whites now turned to direct violence. Both King and Nixon had their homes bombed.
Despite all of the pressure, however, the blacks steadfastly remained off the busses. And it was beginning to seriously bite the Montgomery retail community. Less black people were getting into the retail center, therefore less money was being spent. The white officialdom, however, still refused to compromise. The MIA finally decided to take their struggle all the way to the Supreme Court. Armed with the decision in the 1954 Brown vs Board of Education case, the argued that segregation on busses was unconstitutional. On November 13, 1956 the Supreme Court agreed, declaring segregation on busses to be unconstitutional. The Montgomery bus Boycott was over.
The boycott had achieved very little in the scheme of things. What it had done, however, was to galvanise the black people of the South, showing them that they did have power in numbers and that changes could come through their concerted efforts. It also propelled Martin Luther King, Jr onto the national stage. In doing these things, then, it was of monumental importance.
