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The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social Protest campaign started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama , intended to oppose the city's policy of Racial Segregation on its Public Transit system. The ensuing struggle lasted from December 5 , 1955 , to December 20 , 1956 , and led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws requiring segregated buses unconstitutional. ROSA PARKS Rosa Parks was a black Seamstress by profession and secretary for the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP . Shortly before her arrest on December 1 , 1955 , she had completed a course in "Race Relations" at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee . The boycott was triggered by her arrest, when she was charged for violating racial segregation laws in Montgomery after refusing to give her seat on a bus to a white man. She was sitting in the fifth row (the first row that blacks could occupy), along with three other blacks. Soon, all of the first four rows were filled up, and a white man walked on. Since blacks and whites could not be in the same row, the bus driver wanted all of the blacks to move. The other three blacks complied, but Parks refused. When found guilty on December 5 , Parks was fined $10 plus a court cost of $4, but she appealed. As a result of her courage, Rosa Parks is considered one of the pioneers of the civil rights movement. E. D. NIXON The boycott was planned before Rosa Parks's arrest by E. D. Nixon , president of the local NAACP chapter and a member of the Brotherhood Of Sleeping Car Porters . Nixon intended that her arrest be a test case to allow Montgomery's black citizens to challenge segregation on the city's public buses. With this goal, community leaders had been waiting for the right person to be arrested, a person who would anger the black community into action, who would agree to test the segregation laws in court, and who, most importantly, was "above reproach." When fifteen year old Claudette Colvin was arrested early in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat, E.D. Nixon thought he had found the perfect person, but the teenager turned out to be pregnant. Nixon later explained, "I had to be sure that I had somebody I could win with." Parks, however, was a good candidate because of her employement and marital status, along with her good standing in the community. Between Parks's arrest and trial, Nixon organized a meeting of local ministers at the church of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. . Though Nixon could not attend the meeting because of his work schedule, he arranged that no election of a leader for the proposed boycott would take place until his return. When he returned he caucused with Ralph Abernathy and Rev. E.N. French to name the association to lead the boycott (they selected the ' Montgomery Improvement Association ' ("MIA")), create a list of demands to propose to the city, and select Rev. King (Nixon's choice) to lead the boycott. Nixon wanted King to lead the boycott because the young minister was new to Montgomery and the city fathers had not had time to intimidate him. At a subsequent, larger meeting of ministers, Nixon's agenda was threatened by the clergymen's reluctance to support the campaign. Nixon was indignant, pointing out that their poor congregants worked to put money into the collection plates so these ministers could live well, and when those congregants needed the clergy to stand up for them, those comfortable ministers refused to do so. Nixon threatened to reveal the ministers' cowardice to the black community, and Rev. King spoke up, denying he was afraid to support the boycott. King agreed to lead the MIA, and Nixon was elected its treasurer. BOYCOTT On the night of Rosa Parks's arrest, Jo Ann Robinson , head of the Women's Political Council printed and circulated a flyer throughout Montgomery's black community which read as follows: ''"Another woman has been arrested and thrown in jail because she refused to get up out of her seat on the bus for a white person to sit down. It is the second time since the Claudette Colvin case that a Negro woman has been arrested for the same thing. This has to be stopped. Negroes have rights too, for if Negroes did not ride the buses, they could not operate. Three-fourths of the riders are Negro, yet we are arrested, or have to stand over empty seats. If we do not do something to stop these arrests, they will continue. The next time it may be you, or your daughter, or mother. This woman's case will come up on Monday. We are, therefore, asking every Negro to stay off the buses Monday in protest of the arrest and trial. Don't ride the buses to work, to town, to school, or anywhere on Monday. You can afford to stay out of school for one day if you have no other way to go except by bus. You can also afford to stay out of town for one day. If you work, take a cab, or walk. But please, children and grown-ups, don't ride the bus at all on Monday. Please stay off all buses Monday." {Link without Title} The next morning at a Church meeting led by the new MIA head, Rev. King, a citywide boycott of public transit was proposed to demand a fixed dividing line for the segregated sections of the buses. Such a line would have meant that if the white section of the bus was oversubscribed, whites would have to stand; blacks would not be forced to remit their seats to whites. This demand was a compromise the leaders of the boycott believed the city of Montgomery would be more likely to accept rather than a demand for full integration of the buses. In this respect, the MIA leadership followed the pattern of earlier boycott campaigns in the Deep South during the 1950s. A prime example was the successful boycott of service stations in Mississippi for refusing to provide restrooms for blacks. The organizer of that campaign, T.R.M. Howard of the Regional Council Of Negro Leadership , had spoken in Montgomery as King's guest at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church only days before Parks's arrest. This demand was to be supplemented by a requirement that all bus passengers receive courteous treatment by bus operators, be seated on a first-come, first-served basis, and blacks be employed as bus drivers. The proposal was passed, and the boycott was to commence the following Monday. To publicize the impending boycott it was advertised at black churches throughout Montgomery the following Sunday. On Monday, . Black s. In response, opposing whites swelled the ranks of the , as were four black Baptist churches. Boycotters were often physically attacked. Under a 1921 ordinance, 156 protesters were arrested for "hindering" a bus, including King. He was ordered to pay a $500 Fine or serve 386 days in Jail . He ended up spending 2 weeks in prison. The move backfired by bringing national attention to the protest. However, King commented on the arrest by saying: "I was proud of my crime. It was the crime of joining my people in a nonviolent protest against injustice." {Link without Title} VICTORY Pressure increased across the country, and on June 4 , 1956 , the Federal District Court Ruled that Alabama's racial segregation laws for buses were unconstitutional. However, an appeal kept the segregation intact, and the boycott continued until, finally, on November 13 , 1956 , the Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling. This victory led to a city ordinance that allowed black bus passengers to sit virtually anywhere they wanted, and the boycott officially ended December 20 , 1956 . The boycott of the buses had lasted for 381 days. Martin Luther King capped off the victory with a magnanimous speech to encourage acceptance of the decision. The boycott resulted in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement receiving one of its first victories and gave Martin Luther King the national attention that made him one of the prime leaders of the cause. INVOLVEMENT People
Organizations (from Who Was Involved )
REFERENCES # The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Montgomery Movement Begins # {Link without Title} FURTHER READING
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