Montgomery Bus Boycotts

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Power point created by Robert L. MartinezPrimary Content Source: The History of US, by Joy HakimImages as Cited.

• Rosa Parks was a small, soft-voiced 43-year-old woman who wore rimless glasses and pulled her brown hair back in a bun.

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• Parks had been secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, so she

was well known to Montgomery’s black community.

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• On the evening of December 1, 1955, Mrs. Parks was mostly just plain tired. She had

put in a full day at work. She didn’t feel well, and her neck and back hurt. She got

on a bus and headed home.

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• In 1955, buses in all the southern states were segregated. Laws said that the seats in the front were for whites, those in the back

for blacks.

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• Then, when all the seats filled up, the driver asked Parks to give her seat to a white man (that was customary in Jim Crow Alabama).

Rosa Parks wouldn’t budge.

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• She knew she might get in trouble, she might even go to jail, but suddenly she

found herself filled with determination. She stayed in her seat.

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• The bus driver called the police. Rosa Parks was soon arrested and on her way to

jail. Parks was tired of riding on segregated buses. She was tired of being pushed around. She was even ready to go

to jail.

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• When the ministers and black citizens of Montgomery heard of her arrest, they were stunned. Of all people, mild-manner, Mrs.

Parks was in jail?

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• The NAACP raised bond money to get her out of jail. But she would have to go on trial for breaking the segregation law.

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• The NAACP asked Parks if her case could be used to fight segregation. They knew that

might put her life in danger.

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• Blacks who stood up for their rights were sometimes lynched. But Mrs. Parks pursued

the issue anyways.

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• The black community began organizing a boycott of the buses. Montgomery’s blacks would stay off the buses for one whole day

as a protest.

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• Leaflets were printed, telling the black community to keep off the buses the next

Monday, the day of Rosa Park’s trial.

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• Montgomery’s leading Negro ministers agreed to support the one-day boycott. In

their sermons on Sunday they urged everyone to stay off the buses on Monday.

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• Those who rode buses were mostly the poorer citizens. They were people who

needed to get to work. Some were elderly.

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• Some could find rides, but many would have to walk miles. And they all feared

white violence. It was customary to intimidate blacks who tried to stand up for

their rights.

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• It was fear that made segregation work.

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• But something unexpected happened in Montgomery. Like Rosa Parks, most black people no longer seemed afraid. They had had enough.

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• They stayed off the buses Monday. And also on Tuesday. And then all week. And

all month. And on and on, in rain and cold and sleet and through the heat of summer.

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• In an effort to intimidate the black community, black homes and churches

were bombed and burned.

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• The black community had several strong leaders, but one was outstanding. That

leader was a 26-year old minister named Martin Luther King, Jr.

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• When King was asked to lead the boycott, he accepted. He decided to incorporate

Gandhi’s methods of nonviolent protest.

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“We are not here advocating violence. The only weapon that we have…is the weapon

of protest…[and] the great glory of American democracy is the right to protest

for right.” – Martin Luther King

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• Soon people around the nation, and in other nations as well, were watching the people of Montgomery marching for civil

rights.

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• TV watchers saw and heard the haters, screamers and rock throwers.

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• Thirteen months after Rosa Park’s arrest, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on Alabama buses was unconstitutional.

The boycott was over.

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• Martin Luther King and other prominent black leaders rode the first integrated bus,

and they all sat up front together.

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• The people of Montgomery not only changed their world, they changed their

times.

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