the Montgomery bus boycott

• • Montgomery is the capital of Alabama. in 1956 the population was (70,000 white) (50,000 black)
• • segregation of schools, libraries, restaurants & transport was enforced by Jim crow laws
• • the black income was $970 P.A- (half that of whites) black people dominated unskilled, low paid jobs, such as maids & labourers
• • black people in Alabama were not allowed to hold public office.
• • thousands of black people also were denied the vote due to poll tax & literacy tests.
• • the Alabama bus company only employed white drivers
• • white people sat at the front of the back, even if the front was unoccupied
• • if the bus was full & a white person wanted to sit, the black person would have to give up their seat
• • 70% of bus users in Montgomery were black. (they were often abused & harassed by drivers)
• • if segregation laws were not obeyed , a black person could be fined/ jailed
• • Claudette Colvin was arrested for not giving up her seat to a white person, as Mary-Louise Smith
• rosa parks:

  • a 42- year old seamstress in a department store
  • she was a member of the NAACP
  • 1st December 1955, Rosa boarded a bus after work & sat at the back of the bus. when all white seats were taken, she was asked by the driver to give up her seat to a white man. she refused, but didnt argue, but she remained seated. the driver called the police and she was arrested.
• from jail, rosa called her friend Edgar Daniel Nixon, he was leader of the NAACP in Alabama. He paid her bail. she was due to appear in court on Dec 5th
• Nixon wanted to use Park's case to fight to end segregation & to challenge racism in the courts, having discussed it with her mother& husband, Rosa decided to go ahead with a lawsuit to test whether the law on segregation violated the constitution
• Nixon contacted other black leaders to secure their support(Rev Ralph Abertnathy & Dev Martin Luther King)
• Rosa Parks appeared in court, King Abernathy attended
• Park's was found guilty & fined $10. Nixon Immediately appealed the decision
• Meanwhile the bus boycott was a huge success- all over the city the buses were empty as black people found other ways of getting to work
• it was so successful that leaders of the boycott met that afternoon & decided to continue the boycott
• King became president of the MIA
• The MIA set up a car pool system where cars would take people to their destinations
• a permanent M.I.A (the Montgomery Improvement Association) was set up to run the boycott. Martin Luther King was elected leader
• that evening he addressed a crowd that a meeting he urged them to follow non-violent, Christian principles. ('the only weapon that we have in our hands this evening is the weapon of protest'- Martin Luther)
• The M.I.A had 3 demands:

  1. black drivers must be employed
  2. drivers must be the courteous to passengers
  3. segregation on buses must end
• the M.I.A urged the black community to continue the boycott until these demands were met
• money was collected to buy station wagons for a private taxi company
• a transportation commitee was set up to form carpools-(when local agents tried to cancel their insurance, they got Lloyds of London)
• black churches raised $30,000 for the car pool & acted as pick-up points for black people looking for transport
• 8th December- (king & representatives from the M.I.A met mayor W.A. 'tacky Gayle' & reps from the bus company at city hall.
• king was optimistic as the press were also there but the bus company refused to change segregation seating
• the mayor even joked 'comes the first rainy day and the (black people) will be back on the buses'
• white reaction to the boycott:

  the white community made various attempts to disrupt the boycott. they came from 3 main sources
• 1. city busses

  • white community threatened to shut down taxi drivers who charged the same as the bus (10c)
  • 22nd Jan- city bosses falsely announced the media that the boycott was over
  • rumours spread that king was misusing M.I.A funds
• 2. police

  • regularly stopped those who car pooled
  • king was arrested for doing 30mph in a 25mph limit
  • Feb '56-89 black leaders were arrested under an old law that banned boycotting
• 3. The KKK

  • marched through the streets
  • poured acid on cars & in car pools
  • black churches & homes of black leaders were attacked (King's home)
• the legal struggle to end segregation

  • the boycott was only half the battle
  • the legal system to end segregation. (the N.A.A.C.P were working hard through the legal system to end segregation)
  • Claudette Colvin, Aurelia Browder, Susie Mcdonald, Mary Luise Smith & Jeanette Reese had been discriminated against by drivers in Montgomery
  • they agreed to become plaintiffs in a federal action lawsuit. Reese dropped out because of intimidation
• federal judges ruled the bus laws were unconstitutional. but lawyers for the city of Montgomery filed an appeal to the supreme court (June 1956)
• the city sued the M.I.A for damages- they wanted $15,000 in compensation
• this soon became irrelevant however, as on 13th Nov 1956, the U.S. supreme court declared that segregation on buses was unconstitutional, so it must end, this decision was to come into effect on 20th Dec.
• 14th Nov- The M.I.A called off the boycott but asked black citizens to stay off buses until the ruling came into effect