Montgomery Bus Boycott Thesis

At this time, other local activists have been looking for an occasion to start a boycott of the Montgomery buses, where segregation was especially hurting black people. Most of the teachers of Montgomery, called for a one-day protest against the bus line, asking the blacks to stay at home or find another way to get to work or school. This strike hurted the bus system. The success of that one-day protest persuaded Montgomery civil rights leaders to organize a larger scale boycott of the buses.

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.

“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

In December of 1955, Rosa Parks sat in the front of the bus and refused to give up her seat to a white male. She was later arrested and put in jail. This caused the black people of Montgomery to initiate a boycott, the refusal to use the services of the bus company. They did this in order to gain

Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat at the ‘colored section’ inside the bus to a white passenger, and this went against the customs at the time. As a result of the arrest, Montgomery black community initiated a bus boycott that lasted for more than a year.

The event that started the boycott was when Rosa Park refused to move from her seat to give it to a white passenger on a city bus. This was significant because African Americans were still required to sit in the back while the whites sat in the front of the bus. As a result, Rosa Park was arrested and fined. Although Parks was not the first, it was her arrest that lead to a protest against segregation since she was dignified and non violent. Rosa Parks’s arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, during which blacks refused to ride the buses in protest over the bus system’s policy of racial segregation.

The Jim Crow laws are one of the most racist things in human history. You may recognize laws such as: white men/women and black men/woman had to drink from different water fountains or white men/women always get the front of the bus. The name Jim Crow was made by Thomas D. Rice. He was a white performer and playwright who would perform as a black man Jim Crow. Thomas is considered the “Father of American ministrelsy.”

As a result, many of Montgomery’s African American citizens protested her arrest by boycotting the cities public transportation systems. Because of her bravery in refusing to leave her seat, she gained national recognition and fame, They bus boycott lasted until 1956, when the Supreme Court that segregation of city buses was unconstitutional. This boycott became the first organized protest by African Americans in the South.

Even before the Montgomery Bus Boycott, human rights activist, Rosa Parks, wanted to abolish segregation. Parks lived in Montgomery, Alabama, where segregation was an enormous problem with she wanted to end. After realizing

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.

In 1955 and 1956, the majority of the black population of Montgomery, Alabama boycotted the public bus system in retaliation to the arrest of Rosa Parks, who had refused to give up her seat when asked. The boycotts were done with intent to change the laws of the segregation of public transportation. After a bit less than a year, the boycotts yielded results. On November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court decided the segregation was unconstitutional. This meant that the Montgomery Bus Boycotts changed a set of laws using solely nonviolent methods, and is widely considered to be one of the only movements to have done so.

Montgomery, the capital city of Alabama, is an agricultural land settled in the center of the cotton fields. This city is greatly known for its legacy and involvement in Civil Wars related to racial discrimination. The majority of people who are living in the southern areas are African-Americans, who were also known as colored people (Walton 3). African-Americans have fought for racial equality against racial discrimination for decades. One of their battles was the eradication of the seating policy on the city buses in Montgomery, Alabama. This challenge to the seating policy on the local buses led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. During the period before the boycott, commuters followed the policy wherein the white people occupied the seats from

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

As said by Rosa Parks,“You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right”.This means that when she sat in the front of the bus she was not fearful to get arrested and move because she wanted equal rights.The Civil Rights Movement was a mass popular movement for African Americans equal access to opportunities for the basic privileges and rights of U.S. citizenship. The African Americans were fighting for equal rights, and they wanted to be treated the same as everyone else. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and social activist, who led the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. A boycott is to stop using a product for example, the African Americans boycotted so they could stop riding the buses.The boycott was in Montgomery, Alabama. African Americans wanted to be equal to the whites because they were treated differently than the whites for everything. They wanted to be treated the way whites were being treated.The boycott took place in Alabama in 1955 and ended 1956.The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a successful protest because there were many ways besides the bus for African Americans to get around, the the bus companies lost money, and the protest were covered by the news.