Alabama Bus Boycott : A Civil Association For The Advancement Of Colored People

The American Freedom Rides were motivated by the ‘Journey of Reconciliation’ in 1947, “led by civil rights activists Bayard Rustin and George Houser”1. The Freedom Rides in America involved riding a bus opposing the segregation of black and whites riding together in buses2.

On December 1, 1955, I was on a Montgomery bus and all was calm. I then proceeded to sit by my friend Rosa Parks. We were just having a nice conversation when the driver told us we had to get up,stand, or get off of the bus. I got up and stood in the very back and looked and Rosa wasn’t with me. She was still sitting in her seat. A little later I heard some yelling and in the blink of an eye, Rosa was off of the bus and the police were arresting her. The last thing I ever heard from her was when the bus driver told her he was going to call the police, she said,

The Pain and the Promise by Glenda Alice Rabby gives an account of the long, hard struggles blacks had to endure to achieve equality among whites in Tallahassee and throughout Florida. A lot of people had the misconception that Florida wasn’t like its neighboring Southern states. Rabby proves throughout the book that those were just mere misconceptions and in fact, Florida was equally resistant to change as other states below the Mason Dixon line. Tallahassee, being the state’s capitol, was going to be the city that set the framework for the entire state during the modern civil rights movement if

An man from India deeply influenced a black man in America who persuaded black Americans to peacefully seek civil rights. Blacks in America were once slaves. They had neither freedom nor rights. Now, in the 20th century, segregation has been abolished and discrimination has largely been reduced and blacks are more able to live freely as American citizens. In Early 1950’s, blacks did not have civil rights, so they had to fight for their freedom. In 1955, blacks decided to rally together for social justice and planned a boycott. This boycott became known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This boycott was pivotal in the Civil Right Movement by energizing blacks, particularly in the South, to become more involved in politics. This occurred with

On the morning of parks trial buses rumbled nearly empty through the streets of Montgomery. By the next morning the council led by Jo Ann Robinson had printed 52,000 fliers asking, Montgomery blacks to stay off the buses. It was an important and an accepted rule that whites sit in the front and the African American riders had to sit in the back of all buses. A group of about 50 African American leaders and one white minister, Robert Graetz, gathered in the basement of Dr. King?s church to endorse the boycott and begin planning a massive rally.

Who was Claudette Colvin? Well, Claudette Colvin is the first person ever to refuse to get out of her seat. She was an important civil rights activist who had a big impact on the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

“For many years now Negroes in Montgomery and so many other areas have been inflicted with the paralysis of crippling fears on buses in our community. On so many occasions, Negroes have been intimidated and humiliated and impressed-oppressed-because of the sheer fact that they were Negroes.”

The Montgomery Bus Boycott began with the public arrest of an African American woman and civil rights activist named Rosa Parks. As stated in Document A,”Rosa Parks boarded a city bus and sat down in the closest seat. It was one of the first rows of the section where blacks were not supposed to sit… The bus driver told Rosa Parks that she would have to give up her seat to a white person. She refused and was arrested.” Rosa’s arrest sparked a number of radical events that fought against racial inequality and segregation over the span of thirteen months. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was successful because it led to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that racial segregation among public transportation (especially buses) was unconstitutional. The Montgomery

During the freedom rides, African Americans would refuse to ride in black designated seats on public transportation. The creation of the Freedom Rides was one of the main movements of the CORE civil rights groups. One of the leaders, James Farmer, developed the type protest. The bus would travel down from Washington D.C. to New Orleans, Louisiana in an almost transcontinental nonviolent-protest. Farmers plan was imitated the Journey for Reconciliation. In May of 1961, an interracial collection of people boarded two buses from Washington to travel southward in protest of segregation. Known as the Greyhound and Trailways, the buses traveled peacefully throughout the country until they entered South Carolina. White racists outside of Rock Hill attacked the voyageurs. The ride became increasingly insecure the further south they traveled. A mob firebombed and attacked the members of the Greyhound bus in Anniston and another assaulted the Trailways’ riders in Birmingham. Although CORE discontinued the rides, many other riders assembled due to outrage over the violence displayed. A new wave of activists directed by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), including John Lewis, flooded Alabama where once again they were attacked in Montgomery. The significance of this the second wave of riders was that it forced the executive branch to act in response to the violence. Kennedy directed the Nation Guard to escort the riders their next destination of Mississippi. Kennedy’s brother Robert has the voyagers arrested for violating legislation set by pro-segregation officials in Mississippi and to prevent any further violence. James Farmer continued to encourage this type of protest and by the end of the season over 300 advocates had chose jail over fines to “dramatize” the issue. JFK’s forced recognition of the issues

On May 2011 40 students from different parts of the United States joined the original freedom riders : Jim Zwerg, Who was considered a traitor to his race for participating in the non-violence movements, Ernest “Rip” Patton, he joined the movement two days after the First Baptist Church of Montgomery was attacked by the mobs on May 21, Helen and Bob Singleton and Joan Mulholland that at the time that she joined the freedom rides in June of 1961 was working at the office of a California Senator; in Re-living the 1961 rides from Washington, DC to New Orleans, LA . There is a big difference between the freedom rides of 56 years ago that began with members of the congress of racial Equality (CORE) that sought to fight racism and segregation in the south with non-violence demonstrations and the ones that these students did in 2011, the original ride filled with excitement at first and then with fear when the riders were attacked by the KKK and angry mobs at bus stations and the 2011 freedom rides filled with 40 students from different walks of life traveling with 5 heroes of the civil rights movement, learning about history and reliving it first hand during this 10 day trip. Some of the stories documented by these young freedom riders show us that there are still remnants of that same hate and discrimination of the 1960 decade; it happened to Doaa Dorgham, ironically, on the first day that she was embarking on the journey of the freedom riders, which is precisely to

The success of the boycott of the Montgomery buses and the court case Brown vs. Board of education led African Americans into the 1960’s with the belief that non-violent protest and legal action could make a difference. In the beginning of the 1960’s, students held sit in’s at segregated lunch counters throughout the south. February 1st 1960, was the day of the first sit in at a segregated lunch counter. Four seventeen year old freshman at North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro- Franklin Mccain, Ezell Blair Jr., Joseph Mcneil, and David Richmond- peacefully and politely took seats at the lunch counter and asked for coffee. “By the end of the month similar protest were beginning in thirty one cities and seven southern states” (“The

Another significant transformation took place in the Civil Rights Movement in terms of its strategies. In analyzing this facet of the movement, we notice a great shift from nonviolent demonstration to forward, forceful action. Specifically, at the start of the Civil Rights Movement, lunch counter sit-ins were evident throughout the nation, as were Freedom Riders. Starting in Greensboro, North Carolina at a luncheonette called Woolworths, young black citizens would seat

Referring to the Association's involvement with the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and its role in funding and providing legal assistance to black students' seeking admission to the state university, the suit charged that the Association was ". . . causing irreparable injury to the property and civil rights of the residents and citizens of the State of Alabama for which criminal prosecution and civil actions at law afford no adequate relief . . . ." On the day this suit was filed, the circuit court agreed to issue an ex parte order restraining the Association from conducting business in the state or taking steps to qualify it to do

In the late eighteen hundreds, the Reconstruction by Congress was overturned by the Supreme Court. Segregation or separation by skin color was made a law which was adopted by private organizations, institutions and businesses (loc.gov). Physical violence and mental harassment was imposed upon those whom were deemed inferior in color. Some citizens accepted the law, as is, without question while others believed it was their supreme right to remain separate without modification. Human activists, that opposed this way of living, pursued an extensive battle to abolish racial inequity and segregation from American life (loc.gov). During the nineteen hundreds, many understood this treatment as an offense to human beings and activists began

During the Civil Rights movement of the 1950's and 60's, women played an undeniably significant role in forging the path against discrimination and oppression. Rosa Parks and Jo Ann Robinson were individual women whose efforts deserve recognition for instigating and coordinating the Montgomery Bus Boycotts of 1955 that would lay precedent for years to come that all people deserved equal treatment despite the color of their skin. The WPC, NAACP, and the Montgomery Churches provided the channels to organize the black public into a group that could not be ignored as well supported the black community throughout the difficult time of the boycott.