The Bus Boycott: Civil Rights Turning Point

why is the bus boycott civil rights act in montgomery

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a pivotal event in the Civil Rights Movement, marking the first large-scale demonstration against segregation in the United States. The boycott, which lasted from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956, was sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks, an African American woman who refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. This incident galvanised the Black community in Montgomery, Alabama, leading to a mass protest against racial segregation on public transportation. The protest was coordinated by the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), with Martin Luther King, Jr. as its president, who became a prominent civil rights leader during this time. The success of the boycott demonstrated the power of nonviolent mass protest in challenging racial segregation, setting a precedent for future civil rights campaigns.

Characteristics Values
Dates 5 December 1955 – 20 December 1956
Location Montgomery, Alabama
Reason To protest against the arrest of Rosa Parks and racial segregation on public buses
Protest Type Boycott of city buses
Protesters African Americans
Organisers Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), Women's Political Council (WPC)
Leaders Martin Luther King Jr., Jo Ann Robinson, E.D. Nixon
Demands Courteous treatment by bus operators, first-come-first-served seating, hire of Black drivers
Outcome U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional

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Rosa Parks' arrest

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old African American woman, was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for violating a city law that required racial segregation on public buses. Parks was seated in the first row of the "colored" section when she was instructed by the bus driver, James F. Blake, to vacate her seat for a white passenger. When Parks refused to give up her seat, Blake called the police, and she was arrested and charged with "refusing to obey orders of the bus driver." This act of defiance sparked a 381-day boycott of the Montgomery bus system, led by local ministers Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King, Jr.

At the time of her arrest, Parks was an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), serving as secretary to the president of the Montgomery chapter, E.D. Nixon. She was also a seamstress at a local department store. While Parks was not the first person to be prosecuted for violating segregation laws on Montgomery buses, the NAACP believed that she was the best candidate to challenge these laws in court due to her unchallenged character and standing in the community.

Following her arrest, Parks was booked, fingerprinted, and briefly incarcerated. Her family was terrified for her safety, as she was at great physical risk for openly challenging the racial laws of her city. When she was allowed to call home, her mother's first question was, "Did they beat you?" Parks was eventually bailed out by Nixon and her friends, the Durrs, and she decided to proceed with the case, hiring a young black lawyer, Fred Gray, to represent her.

Parks' arrest and the subsequent bus boycott became important symbols of the civil rights movement. Her quiet act of defiance resonated throughout the world, and she became known as the "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement." The boycott lasted for over a year and ultimately led to a 1956 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public transportation was unconstitutional. Parks' courage and determination inspired tens of thousands of black citizens to stand up for their rights and helped bring an end to segregation laws in the South.

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The role of the Women's Political Council (WPC)

The Women's Political Council (WPC) was founded in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1946 by Mary Fair Burks, an American educator and then-English professor at Alabama State College (later Alabama State University). The WPC was established as a civic organisation for African-American professional women in Montgomery, with the goal of improving the situation of African Americans in the city. The council initially comprised Montgomery public school teachers and college professors who encouraged voter registration, organised adult and youth education programmes, and sought to include African Americans in local civic groups.

In the early 1950s, the WPC, under the leadership of Jo Ann Robinson, another English professor at Alabama State, began meeting regularly with city officials to address the mistreatment of African American bus riders. In 1953, Robinson and other African American leaders presented three complaints to the city's commissioners:

  • African American patrons were forced to stand while empty "white-only" seats remained.
  • There were fewer bus stops in African American neighbourhoods than in white neighbourhoods.
  • African American patrons were required to pay their fares at the front of the bus and then exit and re-enter at the back to take their seats.

Despite their efforts, the city officials failed to implement any meaningful changes. However, the WPC persisted, and their continuous advocacy played a crucial role in initiating the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-1956.

In March 1955, when 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus, the WPC helped arrange meetings among black leaders, the bus company, and city officials. They also began planning for a boycott. However, they postponed the implementation until they could ensure widespread community support.

The opportunity they were waiting for arose in December 1955, with the arrest of Rosa Parks, a prominent civil rights activist, for the same offence as Colvin. Robinson and the WPC drafted and distributed 35,000-50,000 flyers calling for a boycott on December 5, the day of Parks' trial. The boycott was incredibly successful, with approximately 40,000 Black bus riders, the majority of the city's bus riders, participating.

The WPC played a central role in the daily activities of the boycott, driving carpools, organising mass meetings, and communicating with protesters. They also held all four paid staff positions in the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), the organisation established to manage the boycott. The WPC's efforts, along with those of other civil rights activists, ultimately led to the desegregation of city buses and the end of the boycott in December 1956, marking a significant victory in the civil rights movement.

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The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA)

The MIA was formed in the days following the arrest of Rosa Parks, on 1 December 1955, for failing to vacate her seat for a white passenger on a Montgomery city bus. To protest Parks' arrest, E. D. Nixon, the local leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and Jo Ann Robinson, president of the Women's Political Council, organised a one-day boycott of Montgomery buses, to take place on 5 December 1955. That evening, a mass meeting was held at the Holt Street Baptist Church to determine the future of the boycott. The group decided to continue to boycott the buses and urge others to do the same, and they organised themselves into the MIA to oversee the effort.

The MIA elected 26-year-old Martin Luther King Jr., pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, as their president. King was chosen for his eloquence and calm demeanour, and because, as a newcomer to Montgomery, he had no enemies in the community. The MIA's earliest officers, in addition to King as president, were: L. Roy Bennett, first vice president (later replaced by Ralph D. Abernathy); Moses W. Jones, second vice president; Erna Dungee, financial secretary; U. J. Fields, recording secretary (later replaced by W. J. Powell); E. N. French, corresponding secretary; Nixon, treasurer; C. W. Lee, assistant treasurer; and A. W. Wilson, parliamentarian.

The MIA's mission extended beyond the boycott campaign, as it sought to "improve the general status of Montgomery, to improve race relations, and to uplift the general tenor of the community". The association organised carpools and held weekly mass meetings with sermons and music to keep the black community mobilised. They also negotiated with Montgomery city leaders, coordinated legal challenges to the city's bus segregation ordinance with the NAACP, and supported the boycott financially.

The MIA played a significant role in the success of the protest and the desegregation of the buses, and it continued to engage in civil rights protests, voter-registration drives, and student sit-ins until its demise in 1969.

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The Browder v. Gayle ruling

The plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle argued that the segregation laws violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees equal protection under the law. The case was heard by a three-judge panel, which included judges Frank Minis Johnson, Seybourn Harris Lynne, and Richard Rives. On June 5, 1956, the panel ruled in a 2-1 decision that bus segregation was indeed unconstitutional, marking a significant victory for the civil rights movement.

The state of Alabama and the city of Montgomery appealed the district court's ruling, but on November 13, 1956, the United States Supreme Court affirmed the lower court's decision, upholding the ruling that segregation on Alabama's intrastate buses was unconstitutional and ordering the state and city to desegregate their buses. The Supreme Court's decision in Browder v. Gayle was a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement, as it helped to dismantle the legal foundations of racial segregation in public transportation and set a precedent for future civil rights cases.

The Browder v. Gayle case was closely connected to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which began in December 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. The boycott, organised by the Montgomery Improvement Association and led by Martin Luther King Jr., lasted for 381 days until the Supreme Court's ruling in Browder v. Gayle was implemented on December 20, 1956, officially ending bus segregation in Montgomery.

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The boycott's legacy

The Montgomery Bus Boycott is regarded as the first large-scale US demonstration against segregation. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States, and it set the stage for additional large-scale actions outside the court system to bring about fair treatment for African Americans. The boycott also brought national and international attention to the civil rights struggles occurring in the United States, as more than 100 reporters visited Montgomery during the boycott to profile the effort and its leaders.

The boycott demonstrated the potential for nonviolent mass protest to successfully challenge racial segregation and served as an example for other southern campaigns that followed. It stimulated activism and participation from the South in the national Civil Rights Movement and gave King national attention as a rising leader. The MIA's tactics of combining mass nonviolent protest with Christian ethics became the model for challenging segregation in the South.

The boycott also had a significant impact on the leadership of the civil rights movement. In his leadership of the MIA, Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as a prominent national leader of the civil rights movement while also solidifying his commitment to nonviolent resistance. King’s approach remained a hallmark of the civil rights movement throughout the 1960s. Shortly after the boycott’s end, he helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a highly influential civil rights organization that worked to end segregation throughout the South.

The boycott also had a significant impact on the legal framework surrounding racial segregation. The US Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional was a major victory for the civil rights movement and helped to set a precedent for future challenges to segregation in other areas.

Frequently asked questions

The Montgomery Bus 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 boycott was a protest against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama.

The boycott lasted from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956, and resulted in a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws that segregated buses were unconstitutional. The boycott is regarded as the first large-scale U.S. demonstration against segregation.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader of the boycott and a prominent figure in the civil rights movement. He was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), which coordinated the boycott. King's role in the boycott garnered international attention, and his commitment to nonviolent resistance became a hallmark of the civil rights movement.

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