Montgomery Bus Boycotts Research Paper

Discrimination of the blacks was a dilemma without a care to be resolved. Separation of whites from the darker complected people is what caused rebellions and outrage throughout communities, throughout the nation. “Whites sit in the front, blacks sit in the back,” this is the main reason that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, which cause African Americans to boycott against the buses. You are black, you do not have the same rights as we do.” and out of fear, out of lack of courage, the African Americans obeyed their orders. Then one day, a man asked Rosa Parks to stand or head towards the rear of the bus so he may have a seat in the front where white men and women would sit. She refused to stand, and she did not move; she sat ignoring the commands of a “superior white male.” Rosa Parks began a movement after her actions got her arrested; known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This act of civil disobedience of a single female caught the attention of many, causing plenty to refuse to do as the signs announced, and causing many to walk to work rather than ride the bus. The blacks no longer felt obligated to listen to the signs and the laws which were bizarre yet politely rude. White people were not superior, and it was now that the African Americans were realizing they deserved equality.

Mrs. Parks entered the bus, paid her fare, and took a seat in the middle section of the bus. The back of the bus was deemed the "colored section", the front was considered the "white section", and the middle section was for either race, however if a white person needed a seat, the black person was expected to give up their seat immediately. The bus made three stops a white man entered the bus and needed a seat, the three other black got out of their seat immediately, but when the driver ordered Rosa to get up she firmly stated "no", Mrs. Parks once stated that "people always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired of giving in." According to "Rosa Parks", Mrs. Parks had meant to do no more than show one rude bus driver that blacks were being treated unfairly. She wasn't the first black to ever refuse to give up her seat, but her action had consequences. After she refused to give up her seat on the bus, the driver threatened to have her arrested, Mrs. Parks simply stated, "You may do that." The policemen clearly didn't want to arrest her, but law forced them to.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, one of the leaders of the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP] refused to give up her seat to a white person on a segregated city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, despite being reprimanded by the driver (Schulke 166). Montgomery, Alabama was known for its terrible treatment of blacks. The buses in particular had been a source of tension between the city and black citizens for many years (Schulke, 167). As a result of refusing to give up her seat, Rosa Parks was arrested. Rosa Parks' popularity among the black community, proved to be the spark that ignited the non-violent Civil Rights Movement (Norrell 2).

supremacist group. The arrests largely brought an end to the busing-related violence. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a very important and vital part in the civil rights movement for many reasons. First, it was the one of the first mass protests on civil rights in the U.S. The Montgomery bus boycott set the stage for other large protests outside the court system to bring fair treatment for African Americans. Second, Martin Luther King came up as a prominent national leader of the civil rights movement while also.keeping true to his commitment to nonviolent protest. Shortly after the boycott' s end, he

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.

On Thursday evening December 1, 1955, Rosa boards a Montgomery City Bus to go home after a long day working as a seamstress. She walks back to the section for blacks, and takes a seat. The law stated that they could sit there if no White people were standing. Rosa parks never liked segregation rules and has been fighting against them for more than ten years in the NAACP, but until then had never broke any of the unjust rules. As the bus stops at more places, more white people enter the bus, all the seats in the “White Only” section was filled and the bus driver orders Rosa’s row to move to the back of the bus, they all moved, accept Rosa. She was arrested and fined for violating a city regulation. This act of defiance began a movement that ended legal Segregation in America, and made her an inspiration to freedom devoted people everywhere.

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.

Black Americans were second class citizens ensured by the structure of southern society pre-1955. The southern states had white only restaurants, white only rest zones in bus centers etc. Montgomery, Alabama, buses were segregated with specific areas on a bus reserved for white customers and other seats for black costumers. After a full days work, Rosa Parks got a bus home. The bus was “full” in the sense that all the seats for white Americans were in use. Parks was seated in a seat for Black Americans, a white man got on board and found that there were no open “white” seats. The bus

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was successful because the protesters used nonviolence, the community helped each other, and the car pool was a major step in outcome. First of all, on March 22, 1956, Martin Luther King Jr. gives a speech and he states, “Democracy gives us this right to protest and that is all we are doing. We can say honestly that we have not advocated violence, have not practiced it, and have gone courageously on with a Christian movement”. This statement exemplifies that the protesters have done nothing wrong and they don’t plan on using violence. To continue, in a letter by Virginia Foster Durr written on January 30, 1956, she writes,“I think it is the first time that a whole Negro community has ever stuck together this way and

The montgomery Bus boycott is a major milestone in civil rights history because it was a civil rights movement international resistance for radical segregation and helped changed the view of disorderly conduct toward African American people in America In document # 6 Malcolm X says “ The Black man should take control of the politics of his own community and control the politicians who are in his own community”. This situation was successful because African American men did start to take control of things like the Civil Rights revolution. Although it wasn’t enough it was still there for

They organized the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to plan the event and oversee its progress. Martin Luther King Jr. was elected president of the association, partly because he was a powerful speaker, and partly because he hadn’t been a part of the community long enough to have any enemies. The initial demands made by the MIA were only for courteous treatment, first serve seating, and job opportunities for African Americans to become bus drivers, however, these demands later expanded throughout the protest. Plans for the boycott were announced to the community by black ministers at Church on December 4. The Montgomery Advertiser, a general-interest newspaper, [also] published a front-page article on the planned action (history.com.) On top of that, the WPC passed out flyers informing the community of the boycott on December 5. By that same day the African American citizens of Montgomery were ready and willing to begin the thirteen month long protest for

Years before Rosa Parks, she was asked to give up her seat on a bus for a white man and asked to go into a “Jim Crow” car. She refused to move

In his diary entry, Rustin states that, “42,000 Negroes have not ridden the busses since December 5… the police began to harass, intimidate, and arrest Negro taxi drivers who were helping get these people to work.” Rustin’s diary entry shows the atrocities African American citizens faced before the Montgomery Bus Boycott was successful. In Document D, Virginia Foster Durr, a white woman who supported African American civil rights, states in a letter that, “The Montgomery Bus Boycott is really making history… I think they [the Negro community] are going to win it.” Durr’s letter highlights the faith in African American civil rights, even among white folk during the Montgomery Bus Boycott events. Jo Ann Robinson, president of the Women’s Political Council that was made up of African American professional women, sent a respectful letter to the Mayor of Montgomery in 1954. Document B: Letter from Robinson to the Mayor states that, “We are happy to report that busses have begun stopping at more corners now in some sections where Negroes like than previously.” Robinson’s letter explicitly showcases the successful improvements the Montgomery Bus Boycott was making on

On December 1, 1955 a black seamstress, after a long and exhausting day at work, got onto a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama and sat in the back where the blacks were portioned off. A few stops following, a flock of white people boarded. They seized all the remaining seats in the front, except for one white man who was forced to stand as the seats were filled up. The bus driver ordered the four black people in the rear end of the bus to give up their seats to the white man.Three of the four stood up hesitantly. Rosa Parks, the work-weary black seamstress did not. She was arrested later that evening. She was angry at the hate and disrespect towards blacks and minorities. She had enough of the way the world has treated them and she knew that

One of the Champions of the American Civil Rights Movement was Rosa Parks. A native of Tuskegee Alabama, she was said by some to be the mother of the African American Civil Rights Movement. Making a living as a seamstress, she was highly involved in the local efforts of the N.A.A.C.P. (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) as well as exceedingly active in her church congregation, Rosa Parks would become infamous for simply refusing to be treated differently because of the color of her skin. Aboard the Cleveland Avenue bus coming home from work on the evening of December 1st 1955, an already weary Rosa Parks was instructed by the bus driver to surrender her seat to a Caucasian man who had boarded the bus subsequent to her. When she refused to do so, the police were summoned and she consequentially was arrested. This was her first time to be under arrest, but she conducted herself in a professional and dignified manner despite the extreme injustice she was being served (Johnson 212). Jo Ann Robinson called Rasa Parks a woman of "high morals and a strong character". She was exactly what the N.A.A.C.P. needed for a plaintiff in their proposed civil suit against the bus company (Marcus 260).