Montgomery Bus Boycott and Freedom Rides

• What Plessy V Ferguson was

  • Plessy v Ferguson was a US Supreme Court ruling in 1896 
  • It said that racial segregation on public transport was acceptable because people were being kept ‘separate but equal’ as they still had access to transport
• Segregation on public transport in the southern states

  • Segregation in public transport had become widespread in the southern states following the Supreme Court judgement in the 1896 Plessy v Ferguson case
  • There had been many attempts to challenge this. However, it was only in the 1950s that there was significant success as people began to challenge the discrimination of the bus laws in particular
  • In March 1955, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was arrested and spent hours in an adult jail for refusing to give up her seat on the bus for a white American passenger
• Who Rosa Parks was

  • Rosa Parks had been involved in civil rights campaigns for most of her adult life
  • In 1932, she worked with her husband to help free a group of black American teenagers falsely accused of rape
  • As a member of the Montgomery branch of the NAACP, she helped to get legal representation for black Americans facing discrimination and false accusations
• Rosa Park's response to Emmett Till

  • In the summer of 1955, Parks was horrified by the murder of black American teenager Emmett Till, who was tortured, mutilated and shot in Mississippi in an act of racist violence
  • She also attended a workshop about how to desegregate schools, and went to a talk about the Till murder where she saw Dr Martin Luther King Jr speak for the first time
• Rosa Park's arrest and the response to it

  • On 1 December 1955, Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus for a white American passenger
  • The Montgomery branch of the NAACP and the Montgomery Women’s Political Council, led by Jo Ann Robinson, immediately called for a boycott of the buses to try to force the bus companies to end discrimination
  • In Montgomery, around 70% of bus passengers were black and many could not afford to own a car. On 5 December 1955, the day of Parks’s trial, around 90% of black Americans in Montgomery refused to travel on a bus
• The MIA and Martin Luther King

  • Civil rights campaigners in Montgomery, Alabama, met at the Holt Street Baptist Church on the night of 5 December 1955 to form the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA).
  • The MIA was led by Dr Martin Luther King Jr. They decided they wanted to continue the boycott of buses
  • When the bus companies refused to compromise, they decided to demand complete desegregation of the buses in Alabama.
• Events of the Boycott

  • There was a lot of opposition to the boycott
  • The MIA organised a scheme where people could get lifts in cars so they did not need to use the bus
  • However, some black Americans queuing for a car were arrested or attacked by people who opposed their stance
  • Around 90 leading figures of the boycott, including Rosa Parks and Dr King were arrested
  • Many only avoided prison by paying fines. Churches and the houses of people who supported the boycott were burned down, including Dr King’s house. The boycott lasted for 381 days.
• Browder v Gayle

  • The NAACP challenged the Alabama bus laws in court by arguing that four black Americans had been discriminated against on the buses.
  • They hoped for another judgement that would apply to all buses in America and not just in Alabama
  • The case of Browder v Gayle went to the Supreme Court in Washington, DC, in February 1956
  • The NAACP argued that segregation broke the right to equal treatment granted to all Americans by the 14th amendment to the US Constitution. The Supreme Court agreed and in December 1956 the Alabama buses were desegregated. The bus boycott finally ended.
• What the bus boycott showed

  The boycott showed civil rights campaigners that segregation could be challenged in court, especially if that challenge was backed up by large numbers of campaigners using non-violent means to win public support
• Organisation of freedom rides

  • As with schools, there was a lot of resistance to desegregating buses and bus stations. 
  • In May 1961, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) organised freedom rides
  • On these rides, black Americans would deliberately break segregation laws on buses and in bus stations to highlight that the Browder v Gayle ruling was not being enforced
• The 1st Freedom Ride

  • The first freedom ride was on 4 May 1961 and it went from Washington, DC, to New Orleans
  • It travelled through many of the southern states
• Dangers of the freedom rides

  • Freedom Riders were attacked in Anniston, Birmingham and Montgomery, in Alabama
  • Others were arrested in Jackson, Mississippi
• Protecting freedom riders

  • The police did little to help the Freedom Riders, so President John F Kennedy sent US Marshals to protect them
  • In September 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission ordered that buses and bus stations must be desegregated immediately.