Importance of the boycott

• Importance of the Montgomery Bus Boycott


  • Paved the way for further campaigns against segregation
  • Brought Martin Luther King to the forefront of the civil rights movement
  • Proved that non-violent direct action could work
• Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)


  • Set up in January 1957 to coordinate church-based protest across the South
  • Led by Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy
  • Members campaigned against segregation using non-violent direct action
  • Secured black and white membership
  • Earliest major campaign was for voter registration
• The Brown case and the bus boycott led to increased public support for civil rights and a civil rights act being passed in Congress in 1957
• It also highlighted how much power they had when they worked together, as they were able to stop white businesses from operating.
• However, the boycott did not last long enough to be successful, as many African Americans continued to use segregated facilities even though they knew about the boycott.
• Martin Luther King became an important figure within the SCLC and began to lead protests himself.
• Civil Rights 1957 Act: aimed to increased black voter registration and made it illegal to obstruct this and to allow federal courts to persecute states that did not guarantee citizens voting rights. however all white juries in the south were unlikely to uphold federal prosecutions of state violations of voting rights