Alabama Bus Boycott: A Civil Rights Movement Landmark

when did alabama bus boycott begins

The Alabama Bus Boycott, also known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, began on December 5, 1955, and lasted 381 days until December 20, 1956. The boycott was sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks on December 1, 1955, when she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a mass protest against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama.

Characteristics Values
Date 5th December 1955 to 20th December 1956
Duration 381 days
Duration 382 days
Location Montgomery, Alabama
Reason Protest against the arrest of Rosa Parks and racial segregation on public transport
Protest Type Mass boycott of the Montgomery bus system
Protesters Civil rights activists and supporters, including 90% of Montgomery's African American citizens
Leaders Martin Luther King Jr., Jo Ann Robinson, E.D. Nixon
Organisations Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), Women's Political Council (WPC), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
Demands Courteous treatment by bus operators, first-come-first-served seating, employment of African American bus operators
Outcome U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional

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Rosa Parks' arrest sparked the boycott

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus. This sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a 13-month mass protest that ended with a landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. The boycott was coordinated by the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), with Martin Luther King, Jr. as its president. King's role in the boycott brought him into the national spotlight and he became a prominent civil rights leader.

The roots of the boycott went back years before Parks' arrest. The Women's Political Council (WPC), a group of black professionals founded in 1946, had been lobbying for changes to Montgomery's bus system to end discriminatory practices against black riders. In March 1954, the WPC met with Mayor W. A. Gayle to outline their demands, which included first-come, first-served seating and an end to the practice of forcing black riders to enter buses from the back. However, this meeting failed to bring about any meaningful change.

The arrest of Rosa Parks proved to be a pivotal moment that mobilized the black community in Montgomery. Parks was a respected member of the community and a seasoned activist who had been the secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She was also not the first person to resist bus segregation, but the NAACP believed she was the best candidate to challenge the segregation laws in court.

On the day of Parks' arrest, the WPC, led by Jo Ann Robinson, printed and distributed leaflets calling for a one-day boycott of the city buses on December 5. The boycott received widespread support, with 90% of Montgomery's black citizens staying off the buses. That evening, a group of black leaders met and formed the MIA, electing King as their president. The boycott was extended indefinitely, and it continued for over a year, causing serious economic distress to the city's transit system.

The MIA filed a federal lawsuit, Browder v. Gayle, challenging the constitutionality of bus segregation. On June 5, 1956, a federal district court ruled that segregated seating on buses was unconstitutional, and this ruling was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in November. The boycott officially ended on December 20, 1956, after the Supreme Court's ruling took effect.

Parks' arrest and the subsequent boycott became important symbols of the civil rights movement. Her courageous act of defiance set in motion a chain of events that ultimately led to the end of legal segregation in the United States. Parks herself became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation and inspired future civil rights campaigns.

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The Women's Political Council laid the groundwork

The Women's Political Council (WPC) was founded in 1946 by Alabama State University professor Mary Fair Burks. The WPC was a group of Black professionals who turned their attention to Jim Crow practices on the Montgomery city buses. In a meeting with Mayor W. A. Gayle in March 1954, the council's members outlined the changes they sought for Montgomery’s bus system: no one standing over empty seats; a decree that Black individuals not be made to pay at the front of the bus and enter from the rear; and a policy that would require buses to stop at every corner in Black residential areas, as they did in white communities. When the meeting failed to produce any meaningful change, WPC president Jo Ann Robinson reiterated the council’s requests in a letter to Mayor Gayle, telling him, “There has been talk from twenty-five or more local organizations of planning a city-wide boycott of buses”.

The WPC had been planning for a citywide bus boycott for years, laying the groundwork for the 1955 boycott. The group helped organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and as its secretary, Thelma Glass, a retired professor of geography at Alabama State University, worked with her students to distribute flyers alerting Black residents to boycott. The WPC was crucial to the success of the boycott, with members like Johnnie Carr and Irene West sustaining the MIA committees and volunteer networks.

The WPC also played a vital role in addressing the mistreatment of Black people who rode the city’s buses and sought change for those who were unjustly interrogated when they tried to vote. Glass, as the secretary of the WPC, investigated those incidents and tried to set them right, despite encountering obstacles at every turn. The Montgomery County Commission often turned a deaf ear to the Black community’s plight and threatened to arrest people if they tried to attend meetings, but Glass was unfazed. She said, "I stopped being nervous when they went through this block throwing acid on cars... My strength came from God and contact with people like MLK, Vernon Johns, members of the Women’s Political Council and the young people who wanted things to be better. We didn’t have time to sit still and be scared."

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The boycott was a mass protest

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a mass protest against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. The protest lasted from December 5, 1955—the Monday after Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger—to December 20, 1956, when the federal ruling Browder v. Gayle took effect. The protest led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws that segregated buses were unconstitutional.

The boycott was triggered by the arrest of Rosa Parks on December 1, 1955, after she refused to give her seat to a white passenger on a city bus. Local laws dictated that African American passengers sat at the back of the bus, and if the white section became full, African Americans had to give up their seats. When Parks refused to move, she was arrested and fined $10. The chain of events triggered by her arrest changed the United States.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign. Before the boycott, Jim Crow laws mandated the racial segregation of the Montgomery Bus Line. As a result, African Americans were not hired as drivers, were forced to ride in the back of the bus, and were frequently ordered to surrender their seats to white people, even though they made up 75% of the bus system's riders. Many bus drivers treated their black passengers poorly, and they were often assaulted, shortchanged, and left stranded after paying their fares.

The boycott was a well-organized campaign. On December 2, 1955, schoolteacher Jo Ann Robinson had mimeographed and delivered 50,000 protest leaflets around town. E.D. Nixon, a local labor leader, organized a meeting at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where local black leaders formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to spearhead the boycott and negotiate with the bus company. The MIA elected a new but charismatic preacher, Martin Luther King Jr., as their president. Under his leadership, the boycott continued with astonishing success. The MIA established a carpool for African Americans, with over 200 people volunteering their cars and roughly 100 pickup stations operating within the city.

The boycott was extremely effective, with enough riders lost to cause serious economic distress to the city transit system. The bus company suffered thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Finally, on November 23, 1956, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the MIA, declaring that segregated busing was unconstitutional. The boycott put Martin Luther King Jr. in the national spotlight and he became the acknowledged leader of the nascent Civil Rights Movement.

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The Montgomery Improvement Association coordinated the boycott

The Montgomery bus boycott, a protest against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama, lasted from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956. The protest was sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks on December 1, 1955, for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus. The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), formed on December 5, 1955, coordinated the boycott.

The MIA was formed by black ministers and community leaders in Montgomery, Alabama. The association was led by Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy, and Edgar Nixon. The MIA was established to oversee the continuation and maintenance of the boycott, with the overarching goal of improving the general status of Montgomery, race relations, and the community's overall tenor.

The MIA's initial demands included courteous treatment by bus operators, first-come, first-served seating, and the employment of African American bus drivers. To achieve these demands, the MIA organized carpools, held weekly gatherings to keep the black community mobilized, negotiated with city leaders, coordinated legal challenges to the city's bus segregation ordinance, and supported the boycott financially.

The MIA played a crucial role in guiding the Montgomery bus boycott, bringing national attention to racial segregation in the South and propelling King into the spotlight as a prominent civil rights leader. The success of the boycott demonstrated the power of nonviolent mass protest in challenging racial segregation and inspired similar campaigns in the South.

The MIA's tactics of combining mass nonviolent protest with Christian ethics became a model for challenging segregation in the South. The association's work extended beyond the boycott, as it continued campaigns into the 1960s, focusing on voter registration, local school integration, and the integration of public facilities.

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The boycott ended with a US Supreme Court ruling

The Montgomery Bus Boycott, a 13-month mass protest, ended on December 20, 1956, with a United States Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional. The boycott was coordinated by the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), led by Martin Luther King, Jr., who became an internationally prominent civil rights leader as a result.

The boycott was sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks on December 1, 1955, and began on December 5, 1955, the Monday after Parks, an African-American woman, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white person. The protest was against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama, where African Americans were forced to ride in the back of the bus and frequently ordered to surrender their seats to white people.

The MIA initially asked for first-come, first-served seating, with African Americans starting in the rear and whites from the front, and for African American bus drivers to be hired for routes predominantly made up of African American riders. When these demands were not met, Montgomery's black residents stayed off the buses through 1956, despite efforts by city officials and white citizens to defeat the boycott.

The MIA filed a federal suit against bus segregation, and on June 5, 1956, a federal district court declared segregated seating on buses to be unconstitutional. The Supreme Court upheld that ruling in mid-November, and the federal decision went into effect on December 20, 1956, bringing an end to the boycott.

The boycott demonstrated the potential for nonviolent mass protest to successfully challenge racial segregation and served as an example for other civil rights campaigns in the South.

Frequently asked questions

The Alabama bus boycott, also known as the Montgomery bus boycott, began on December 5, 1955.

The boycott was triggered by the arrest of Rosa Parks on December 1, 1955, for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger.

The boycott lasted for 13 months, ending on December 20, 1956, when the federal ruling Browder v. Gayle took effect, and the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional.

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