The Montgomery Bus Boycott And The Civil Rights Movement

Montgomery Bus Boycott- In Montgomery, 1955, blacks were forced to sit in the back of the bus. One day Rosa Parks, a true hero, said no when asked to move to the back of the bus. She was arrested and that is when the boycott started. African American Men and Women didn’t ride the bus for more than a year.

She didn’t give up her seat so she got arrested and went to jail. This really helped to spark the Montgomery bus boycott.

Rosa Parks: Rosa Parks is known as the “ Mother of the Civil Rights Movement”. She didn’t give her seat to a white man which led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott to end segregation. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: King would write, speak in public and organized non-violent protests to bring attention to the racial discrimination.

The event that brought about the boycott took place on December 1, 1955. On this day, four African American passengers, including Rosa Parks, were asked to give up their seats on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, as per a city ordinance. Parks was the only one to refuse. Because of this, she was arrested and fined. When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. caught wind of this, he and a colleague organized the boycott of Montgomery 's bus system.

The black community of Montgomery had a major impact on reforming segregated America by not riding the buses for 381 days and for organizing car pools, walking long distances, and for remaining nonviolent even when harassed and beaten by angry whites (Bullard 19). Jo Ann Robinson and the Women’s political Council who immediately began to organize a bus boycott (Bullard 18). NAACP leader E.D. Nixon, who formed the Montgomery Improvement Association and selected a newcomer in town, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, to be the spokesman (Bullard 18). Finally, Attorney Fred D. Gray, who sued the city in U.S, District Court, seeking to have the busing segregation laws invalidated (Montgomery Bus Boycott,

The organization, therefore, played a significant role in the civil rights movements as indicated by the opposition to the introduction of racial segregation into the policies hiring and offices of the federal government. By the begging of 1960, the group has approximately 6000 members and over 50 branches across the nation(NAACP,2013). The high numbers enabled the organization to be influential in winning the rights of back people to serve as officers during the World Wars. In the subsequent years, the group played an increasingly important role in organizing nationwide protests that included marches in many cities against the silent movie by DW Griffin Birth of a

During John Lewis’s early life, the Montgomery Bus Boycott inspired him to get into the civil rights movement. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a protest based off of Rosa Parks refusing to get up for a white person. She was arrested and put into jail; her arrests sparked the

The situation was getting severe. Due to segregation, African Americans were not hired as drivers, were forced to ride in the back of the bus and were also ordered to give up their seats to white people. There was a need for a fight because the white people were never going to eliminate segregation by themselves. One of the first fight was initiated by an African American lady whose name was Rosa parks.

Board of Education case, came another pivotal moment for minority rights. On December 1st, 1955 the renowned Rosa Parks forever changed history as she was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, as a result of not sitting in the back of the bus where African Americans were assigned. She became a prominent civil rights activist, and boycotted the Montgomery bus department for more than a year following her arrest. Among those who joined her was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The event of her disobedient refusal to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a public bus caused controversy and helped launch nationwide efforts of progression to end the segregation of public facilities. Due to her way of standing up for what she believed in, segregation came to an end. Another example of disobedience and rebellion to show program is Anne Frank. Frank and her family

When the whites only section filled up. She refused to give up her seat to the new white riders. She was arrested and stood trial for violating segregation laws. Montgomery Bus Boycott-

Despite being afraid of what happened, he freed himself, his family and other slaves from captivity aboard a Confederate slave ship that was in transit overseas. After this, during and after the Civil War, he became a politician and a ship captain. He showed how even in a nightmare situation, you can still overcome. The lady known as Claudette Colvin was also a person who decided to go against the rules of bus transit for African Americans, not Rosa Parks. In Montgomery, she was only 15 years old when she refused to give up her seat on a bus and was carried away by 2 police officers and taken to an adult prison to be booked.

“Fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin was arrested March 2,1955, and just seven months late eighteen-year-old Mary Louise Smith was arrested on October 21, 1955” (Sanders, Viv). The 1955 bus boycott was initiated by Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat to a white man. “In explaining why she did not move Parks’ said, “My feet were not tired, but i was tired-tired of unfair treatment”” (Sanders, Viv).

One historic example of racial bias in the police force is Dr.King 's march from Selma. In Marion, Alabama on February 18, a group of peaceful demonstrators were attacked by white segregationists. During this attack one of the younger demonstrators, Jimmie Lee Jackson, was killed by a state trooper. In response, Dr Martin Luther King led a 54 mile march early in 1965 in Montgomery, Alabama from Selma that lasted five days to the capital where many oppressed black citizens had been campaigning for voting rights including, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). On Sunday, March 7, 1965 protesters got ready to go to Montgomery but Alabama state police officers with weapons

The United States Supreme Court struck down segregation in the country 's government funded schools—causing racial tension in education. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man in 1955, and that started the civil rights movement. Riots, bombings, beatings and shootings were the regular as African Americans protested in the following years. Those protests eventually moved President John F. Kennedy to send to Congress a civil rights bill on June 19, 1963.