The Montgomery Bus Boycott Essay

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,

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).

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 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.

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

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

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

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.

Due to that success the Montgomery Improvement Association, led by a young minister named Martin Luther King Jr., planned a permanent boycott until their demands were met. They asked for courteous treatment, seating on a first come, first serve basis, and black bus drivers for mostly black bus routes. Businesses and private homes started to feel the effects of the boycott. Whites started to fight back. Blacks were arrested for walking the streets. Dr. King's home was bombed. The boycott lasted eleven months before there were any positive results. The Supreme Court ruled that segregation on Alabama buses was unconstitutional. The boycott was an astounding success and it brought Dr. Martin Luther King to prominence. 1

(ACMHR), in a massive direct action campaign to attack the city's segregation system by putting

The main supporters of this organization were local women and included a young pastor, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. The organization chose Martin Luther King Jr. as its leader, which later became a big part of the Civil Rights Movement and an important black man in history. The boycotting was simple, it encouraged people to not ride the buses to work, school or other destinations . Although homes were getting bombed and people were getting arrested, including Martin Luther King Jr., the boycott continued and succeeded. A wide percentage of the African American population refused to ride the buses, which in turn lead to bad business for the system. The Supreme Court had no choice but to finally rule in favor of the MIA, leading to the idea of no racial segregation on buses. Racial segregation has been banned in public schools, and is now banned from public buses. The idea of equality spreading over the nation got stronger once people saw it was possible to make a change in both schools and

organized a citywide boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, which lasted for more than a year. The

In addition, boycotts were also key tactics into getting popular support to make a permanent level of equality in society. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) with the help of MLK jr. were very well known for building a national platform to speak about segregation and civil rights based off of principles of nonviolence and civil disobedience. (INTRODUCE SCLC AND MLK) The initial phase of the black protest activity in the post-Brown period began in early December 1st, 1955, after the arrest of local NAACP secretary Rosa Parks (Use Emmett Till story) of Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to move to the back of the bus to accommodate a white passenger, so When Rosa Parks went to jail, the black community boycotted the city buses right away. The Montgomery NAACP organized a boycott of the city's buses.

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.