Montgomery Bus Boycott

Who? All the blacks in Montgomery, Alabama and a few whites that decided it was time to take a stand and prove that segregated buses should not be allowed

What? A boycott by definition is: To abstain from or act together in abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with as an expression of protest or disfavor or as a means of coercion. Definition brought to you by dictionary.com. The boycott was a fight for civil rights. Civil Rights is:The rights belonging to an individual by virtue of citizenship, especially the fundamental freedoms and privileges guaranteed by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and by subsequent acts of Congress, including civil liberties, due process, equal protection of the laws, and freedom from discrimination. As said at Dictionary.com

Where? Montgomery, Alabama Entire city of Montgomery and some rural areas around it Pictured: location of Montgomery

WHEN? The Montgomery bus boycott started on December 1, 1955. It lasted a little under a year ending on November 13, 1956. This was the day that the Supreme court ruled the segregation of buses unconstitutional. On December 20, 1956 blacks not only in Montgomery but all over the US, rode the city buses for the first time sitting where ever they wanted. In all, the boycott lasted 382 days. The boycott was originally only supposed to last one day, however, it had one hundred percent participation and thus was voted on to continue until the government desegregated buses Pictured: Rosa Parks on a city bus

Why? African American’s of the US were fed up with being treated differently than others just because of their skin color. When Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving a white man her seat, Montgomery saw it as a good time to start the boycott. Pictured is Rosa Parks at the police station; she was there because she refused to give a white man her seat

Leaders Martin Luther King Jr. Rosa Parks JoAnn Robinson Vernon Johns White minister named Robert Graetz ED Nixon (bailed Rosa Parks out) Pictured on the left is King being arrested Pictured at left is Vernon Jorns Pictured at left bottom is Rosa Parks and ED Nixon entering the courthouse

Transportation The boycott of city buses was a great thing however, without the buses, blacks had no way of getting to work. This problem was solved by an organization formed called Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). There were several different attempts to find a form of transportation that worked. These were as follows: 1) The first form of transportation that the MIA tried was known as the ‘black taxi’. This was run by black taxi drivers all over Montgomery. The drivers only charged 10 cents per passenger. This was the same price as the bus tokens were. This would have been a very successful attempt however, the state soon passed a law sating that all taxi drivers must charge a minimum of forty-five cents per passenger. The MIA had to think of something that wouldn’t cost people too much money. 2) After hardly anytime at all, the MIA came up with a great idea. With donations from all across the US, they ran a private taxi service. All blacks that owned a car would drive the people around town, sort of like a carpool. This was successful, however, the state did everything it could to stop the drivers. Police would ticket drivers for very minor (pictured are some of the ‘private taxies’)

Transportation (Continued) driving infractions and sometimes even put them in jail. People that were against the boycott would throw nails in the road to give the drivers flat tires. Even though there were many things done to make the private taxi service stop, it just kept on going. The MIA spent anywhere form 3 to $4,000 a week to transport over 40,000 people The city buses filed for bankruptcy only two weeks after the boycott began Many businesses, in areas of town where people went just to shop, went out of businesses because blacks weren’t going to that area just to shop anymore.

Purpose The purpose of the boycott was to get the law that stated that all public places, including buses, were to be segregated. Blacks were tired of having to sit in the back of the bus or give their seat to a white man. Pictured is a crowded bus in Montgomery before the boycott

Importance of boycott The importance of the boycott was as follows: It caught the people of America’s attention that there was an issue with segregation It inspired movements for freedom all over the globe Proved that nonviolent protests are effective Helped Martin Luther King Jr. realize that he really wanted to fight for civil rights for his people It also gave king the leadership within national movement, making him well known to the people of America Government officials realized that segregation should be ended and ordered for schools to be desegregated with “deliberate speed” (pictured is a famous picture of a mother and child reading a newspaper that states that segregation has been put to an end)

Circumstances Blacks of Montgomery said (at the beginning of the boycott) that they would only back down under the following circumstances: Guaranteed polite treatment from bus drivers Segregation abolished with first come first serve policy Employment of black drivers (Pictured is a white bus driver before black bus drivers were allowed)

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