Montgomery Bus Boycott

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political protest campaign in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama intended to oppose the city's policy of racial segregation on its public transit system. The ensuing struggle eventually led to a United States Supreme Court decision on November 13, 1956 that declared illegal the Alabama and Montgomery laws requiring segregated buses.

The boycott was precipitated by Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her bus seat in favor of a white passenger. In Montgomery, the dividing line between the front seats reserved for white passengers and the back ones reserved for black passengers was not fixed. When the front of the bus was full, the driver could order black passengers sitting towards the front of the bus to surrender their seat. Rosa Parks' seat was in that border area. She was arrested on December 1, 1955 for her refusal to move.

It is sometimes reported by oral legend and by grade-level education packages that Parks was simply too tired to move from her seat after a long day of work. This is dismissible as pop-history simplicity: In truth, she was a voluntary test case, chosen by the NAACP (with whom she was employed) to bring the relevant city law to the Supreme Court for judgement as to its constitutionality. Planned violations meant to test the strength of a law have been used in numerous civil rights cases before and after, including Plessy v. Ferguson.

In church meetings with the new minister in the city, Martin Luther King, Jr., a city-wide boycott of public transit as a protest for a fixed dividing line for the segregated sections of the buses was proposed and passed.

The boycott proved extremely effective, with enough riders lost to the city transit system to cause serious economic distress. Instead of riding buses, boycotters organized a system of carpools, with volunteer car owners carrying people to various destinations. Some white housewives also drove their black domestic servants to work, although it is unclear to what extent this was based on sympathy with the boycott, versus the simple desire to have their staff present and working. When the city pressured local insurance companies to stop insuring cars used in the carpools, the boycott leaders arranged policies with Lloyd's of London.

There were also taxis charging the same fares as buses to support the boycott. In addition to using motor vehicles other than public transit with segregation, some people used non-motorized means to get around, such as bicycling, walking, or even hitchhiking. As bicycling along bus routes could incidentally slow down buses under certain circumstance [1] (http://www.geocities.com/jusjih/publictransport.html#share) and use of automobiles, including taxis, increased during the boycott, it was likely that traffic volumes, congestions, and problems increased.

In response, opposing whites formed chapters of the White Citizens' Council. Like the Ku Klux Klan, the Councils sometimes resorted to violence: Martin Luther King's house was firebombed and boycotters were physically attacked.

The city finally resorted to arresting Dr. King for organizing the boycott. That move backfired by bringing national attention to the protest. Eventually, the United States Supreme Court affirmed a lower court decision that Alabama's racial segregation laws for buses were unconstitutional, handing the protesters a clear victory. This victory led to a city ordinance that allowed black bus passengers to sit virtually anywhere they wanted. Martin Luther King capped off the victory of a magnanimous speech to encourage acceptance of the decision.

The boycott resulted in the US civil rights movement receiving one of its first victories, and gave Martin Luther King the national attention that would make him one of the prime leaders of the cause.

People

• Claudette Colvin
• Joann Robinson
• E. D. Nixon
• Georgia Gilmore
• Mother Pollard
• Reverend Ralph Abernathy
• Mary Louise Smith
• Clifford Durr
• Hugo Black
• Coretta Scott King
• Fred Gray
• Grover Hall Jr.
• Bayard Rustin
• Glen Smiley
• James Blake
• Martin Luther King Jr.

Organizations

(from Who Was Involved (http://home.att.net/~reniqua/who.htm))

• Women's Political Committee
• Montgomery Improvement Association
• Fellowship of Reconciliation
• Congress of Racial Equality
• Southern Christian Leadership Conference
• Committee for Nonviolent Integration
• Men of Montgomery

Further Readings

• My Soul Is Rested, The Story Of The Civil Rights Movement In The Deep South, by Howell Raines, ISBN 0140067531
• Parting The Waters; America In The King Years 1954-63, by Taylor Branch, ISBN 0671460978
• Stride Toward Freedom, by Martin Luther King Jr., ISBN 0062504908
• The Origins Of The Civil Rights Movement, Black Communities Organizing For Change, by Aldon D. Morris, ISBN 0029221307de:Montgomery Bus Boycott

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