Bus Boycott Research Paper

The montgomery bus boycott was successful through the efforts of the African American community and supporters. The exertion of the community is shown in Robinson's letter. According to the letter, it says :” “More and more of our people are already arranging with neighbors and friends to ride to keep from being insulted and humiliated by bus drivers”. The boycott was strong in the community, if it wasn't for them it would not have lasted 381 days, and it would still be the same segregated buses. They stayed strong and worked together to get transportation for their daily needs using neighboring taxi’s and cars. Another reason the boycott was so successful was, it was lead with courageous and empowering leaders. Dr Martin Luther King Jr. talks on the protest and asserts “I believe that

This took place in December 5, 1955 until December 20, 1956. On December 1st, 1955 Rosa Parks, who is now a major icon for black people, boarded the city bus in Montgomery Alabama. After she sat down the driver announced that the colder people had to yield their seats and move back. Rosa refused to give up her seat to anyone and the driver threaten to call the police. Eventually he called the police and was arrested. She was fined $10 and then another $4 in court fees. This wasn't the first time she had seen that bus driver. The last time she boarded bus she paid her bus fee and had to get off and get on in the back doors. When she got off to go to the back the driver closed the doors on her and drove away without

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama. The law said that black people had to sit in the back of the bus while the the white people sat in the front. Bus drivers often referred to black people on the bus as nigger, black cow, or black ape. Blacks had to pay in the front of the bus and they had to get off to go threw the side door to sit in the back.

Rosa Parks wouldn’t give up her seat on the bus for she thought that blacks and whites should be equal not separate and share the same bus seat.

Since the Supreme Court case of Plessy Vs Ferguson way back in 1892, which ruled the separation of blacks and whites constitutional as long as all public facilities provided were “separate but equal,” the United States had been segregated. As with all other public facilities at the time, the busses in Montgomery Alabama were also subject to this segregation, and it wasn’t until 1956 with the beginning of what became to be known as the “Montgomery Bus

Because African-Americans did not take the bus, taxi drivers offered to pick up African-Americans to take them to their destination. The people in political positions in Montgomery did not like this. So, any taxi driver that was caught transporting African-Americans were arrested. In 1956, Bayard Rustin wrote in his diary about the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He stated that 42,000 African-Americans stopped riding the buses.

On March 2, 1955 a 15 year old girl, Claudette Colvin, refused to give up her seat on the Montgomery City Bus to a white man and in violation of city law she was arrested and taken to jail. Later that year in December Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus to go home after a long day of work. Sitting in the first row of the colored section the bus slowly filled up with passengers.

One night, a now famous woman, Rosa Parks, had enough and and claimed her seat in the front of the bus, where only whites were allowed to sit, and refused to move. Parks became under physical and verbal attack by white citizens, and policemen, before she was arrested and fined.

Segregation was almost as if blacks and whites were on completely different planets. Black people were deigned throughout the public transportation system. They were forced to ride in the back or stand in the isles. They could not walk past the front section of the bus, they paid their fee, got off the bus, and reentered through the back door. Obscene drivers would let African Americans pay their fee, yet after disembarking to go through the back entrance the bus driver would leave. In Montgomery Alabama, 1955, a black seamstress by the name of Rosa Parks sits in the correct seat on the bus. The white section is filled. A middle-aged white man asks Rosa to move. She refuses. This event sparked the Civil Rights Movement. Enraged by these immoral circumstances they went to city council and denounced the bus companies. “The mayor instructed the bus company to begin stopping at every corner in black neighborhoods, just as buses did in white sections in town.” (Freedman 11). Although the change was small it gave hope and light for the victims to see more in the future. The ride was long and bumpy but finally because of their steadfastness they reached their destination. “At long last, a court had upheld the protesters’ cause” (Freedman

When a white person came on the the bus and demanded she go to the back of the bus she refused. This got her arrested for going against the Alabama law which was that a black person had to get up for a white person when the bus was full. This started a boycott for the bus system that lasted for almost 400 days, which then led to the court banning segregation on buses.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was started by a woman who stood up against unjust segregation by sitting down. It officially started on December 5,1955, because a Black woman named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a White man. It was started by the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), which was created for this purpose. The boycott continued for 381 days, until bus segregation was declared unconstitutional. The Montgomery Bus Boycott started a wave of nonviolent protests against segregation in the United States of America.

The boycott changed the way black people could get around without using the bus system. Because of state laws, bus segregation was allowed, forcing an organized bus boycott. This boycott caused decreases, the demand curve shifted to the left, showing a higher availability of empty seats for bus transportation and a lot less potential Black patrons as bus riders. With the boycott organized by Dr. King for the citizens, blacks represented 44% of the population, so with the choices of transportation limited for this demographic, substitute means were put in place from what was offered by the bus transportation company. The substitutes that were organized included car pools and other means of transportation which acted as competition for the transportation bus business. The bus companies were ready to give in because they saw their profits decreased, and a rise in the number of citizens using an alternate means of transportation. Because of the carpooling, the demand curve shifted to the right, and the profits for the bus transportation industry

In honor of Rosa Parks all blacks tried to not go to schools, they did not take the buses, they did not go to work but if they did they walked or they took a cab. That day many people joined together and figured that if people could not ride buses for a day that they would probably be willing to boycott the buses until colored people could ride where they want on the buses. Then they came up with the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was the longest running boycott and one of the most successful boycotts there was. The Boycott ended December 20 1956, and the same day the city of Montgomery lifted segregation on buses.

Before Rosa Park started the Bus Boycott. There was a young woman her name was Colvin Claudette. Colvin was student at Booker T. Washington High School. On March 2, 1955, she boarded a public bus and, shortly thereafter, refused to give up her seat to a white man. Colvin was coming home from school that day. At the same place Rosa boarded another month later. She was sitting two seats from the emergency exit. Until four white people boarded the bus , and the bus driver ordered her, along with three other black people. Colvin still did not move. She said, “ I was thinking about slavery fighters she had read about recently during Negro History Week in February.”

She took a seat in the middle, right behind the 10 seats reserved for white people. All the seats were filled. A white man came on the bus, the driver insisted the four black people sitting just behind the white section move. Mrs. Parks an active NAACP member quietly refused this order.