montgomery bus boycott 1955-60

• Desegregation


  The process of ending the separation of different racial groups, especially in schools and other public facilities
• Groups that campaigned to speed up desegregation in Montgomery, Alabama

  • NAACP
  • Women's Political Council (WPC), campaigned for the desegregation of drinking fountains and the employment of black police officers
• Rosa Parks


  • Paid job: Worked in a department store as a seamstress
  • Voluntary job: State NAACP secretary
• Rosa Parks' actions before the Montgomery bus boycott

  1. Helping black people to register to vote in elections

  2. Campaigning to desegregate libraries
• Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA)


  Organised the longer bus boycott, included a mixture of community and church leaders and was led by Dr Martin Luther King Jnr
• Demands of the MIA

  • Both white and black passengers should be permitted to sit anywhere on a bus, on a 'first come, first served' basis
  • White bus drivers should be polite to black passengers
  • The bus company should employ black drivers on routes mostly used by black passengers
• Effects of the Montgomery Bus Boycott

  • Black people, who were most often on low incomes, commonly depended on buses to get to work, so the year-long boycott was a huge sacrifice for them
  • The MIA set up car pools and encouraged black taxi drivers to charge the same rate as the bus to make things easier
  • Some people, such as Rosa Parks, lost their job for supporting the boycott
  • Some leaders, such as Dr Martin Luther King Jnr, were violently attacked by white supremacists and mistreated by the police
  • Many of the people involved in the car pools were stopped by the police and charged with minor or made-up offences
• Browder v Gayle


  The NAACP took the matter to the Supreme Court, which ruled that segregation in transport was unconstitutional, just as segregation in education had been ruled unconstitutional in Brown v Topeka
• Other positives and negatives of BROWDER V GAYLE:

  POSITIVES:

  • Encouraged similar protests elsewhere
  • Raised the profile of Dr Martin Luther King
  • Proved that black people could achieve change if they worked together

  NEGATIVES:

  • White supremacists retaliated with violence against black people in Montgomery
  • Attempts were made on Dr Martin Luther King life
  • The ruling only covered transport, so segregation still continued in Montgomery in many other ways e.g busstops
• Days after 1st boycott, MIA set up and MLK was appointed leader as he was:

  • New to Montgomery, no friends or enemies
  • Clergyman
  • Well educated
  • Believed in non-violent tactics
• Start of boycott:

  • Rosa park arrested December 1955, for refusing to give up her seat for white man. Wasn't the first time she'd refused to give up her seat, on this occasion her civil disobedience triggered a city-wide response
  • In response the NAACP and WPC decided to organise a city-wide bus boycott on the day of Parks’ trial. Hoping to get companies to listen.
  • Very successful, 90% of black people who usually took the bus boycotted their services, bus company's profits were greatly reduced.
• After Parks was found guilty and fined $10, a longer bus boycott was planned, by MIA (went on for a year). MIA also had demands.
• Results of boycott:

  • In February 1956, 90 members of MIA were arrested for 'disrupting lawful business'. All were found guilty, and some were fined (MLK fined $500), while others were imprisoned.
  • Arrests and violence gained lots of sympathy and publicity
  • Trial gave the MIA the chance to publicise their grievances nationally. Funds poured into the MIA as black and white people from all over the USA supported their cause.
  • Led to BROWDER V GAYLE
  • The MIA had achieved the significant victory of desegregating Montgomery's buses.
  • Showed non-violent action could be effective.
• Effects of the Montgomery Bus Boycott


  • Black people, who were on low incomes, depended on buses to get to work, so the year-long boycott was a huge sacrifice for them
  • MIA set up car pools and encouraged black taxi drivers to charge the same rate as the bus to make things easier
  • Some people, such as Rosa Parks, lost their job for supporting the boycott
  • Some leaders, such as MLK, were violently attacked by white supremacists and mistreated by the police, MLK house bombed.
  • Many of the people involved in the car pools were stopped by the police and charged with minor or fake offences
• Montgomery Bus Boycott

  • It led to other bus boycotts, such as in Florida in 1956
  • It encouraged other forms of protest, such as a boycott of businesses owned by white people in Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1957
  • It led to the formation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which brought southern civil rights activists together to coordinate their actions
• Why was boycott so successful?

  • Publicity: leaflets, church services, local press made sure people knew about boycott. MIA meetings kept everyone informed on what was happening.
  • Commitment: people stuck to boycott despite threats of violence ands arrests.
  • Organisation: WPC had good contacts, and MIA coordinated everything.
  • Key individuals: MLK, excellent speaker, organiser and motivator.
• SCLC (1957)


  • Religious leaders, who supported the idea of using non-violent resistance and protest to bring about change.
  • Many early actions:
  • Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom in 1957, which pressured the president to speak out against segregation.
  • Attempt to increase black voter registration, called the Crusade for Citizenship
  • ‘movement centres’ in the South to coordinate the actions of black church communities fighting segregation
• CIVIL RIGHTS ACT 1957:

  Federal courts were given powers to prosecute states that tried to prevent black Americans from voting.
• OPPOSITION TO C.R.A 1957:

  • Dixiecrats tried their best to stop acts going through. Onbe politician spoke for 24 hours in Congress, so that they ran out of time to vote on the bill (filibuster tactic)
  • President Eisenhower spoke against act, felt it forced change onto people.