Montgomery Bus Boycott

Rosa Parks, the "mother of the civil rights movement" was one of the most important citizens of the 20th century. Mrs. Parks was a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama when, in December of 1955, she refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger. The bus driver had her arrested. She was tried and convicted of violating a local ordinance. Her act sparked a citywide boycott of the bus system by blacks that lasted more than a year. The boycott raised an unknown clergyman named Martin Luther King, Jr., to national prominence and resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation on city buses. Over the next four decades, she helped make her fellow Americans aware of the history of the civil rights struggle. This pioneer in the struggle for racial equality was the recipient of innumerable honors, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her example remains an inspiration to freedom-loving people everywhere.

It lasted a little more than one year. The Montgomery bus boycott began on December 5, 1955, a few days after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give her bus seat to a white man, and ended on December 20, 1956, after the Supreme Court declared segregation on public transportation unconstitutional. In all, the boycott lasted 381 days, or 1 year and 16 days.

The Montgomery bus boycott began December 5, 1955 and ended December 20, 1956, 381 days later.

The Montgomery bus boycott began on December 5, 1955 and ended December 20, 1956, 381 days later.

Rosa Parks was 42 years old at the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, December 5, 1955.

Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955, for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. Ms. Parks was well-respected within the African-American community, arousing outrage at the way she was treated by the bus company and police. African-American community leaders, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., met to discuss the situation on December 4, and planned a one-day boycott of the Montgomery public transit system for December 5, 1955. What started as a one-day event eventually stretched 381 days, until December 20, 1956, as the community determined not to ride the buses again until they were integrated. Rosa Parks unsuccessfully challenged the constitutionality of the segregation law in the Alabama state courts, where the appeals process threatened to drag on for years. Local attorneys Fred Gray and Charles Langford consulted with NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys, Robert Carter and Thurgood Marshall, whose successful campaign against segregation in education lead to the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, (1954). Carter and Marshall suggested choosing a new group of plaintiffs who had been discriminated against and abused by the busing company. The resulting suit, Browder v. Gayle, (1956), resulted in the Supreme Court affirming the US District Court for the Middle District of Alabama's ruling that the bus segregation was unconstitutional. For more information about Browder v. Gayle, (1956) and Rosa Parks' court cases, see Related Questions, below.

It gave Black people an equal seat on the bus. There are no more divided sections like there were. There's no more White Section and Colored section on the buses. They can sit anywhere they want to now.

refrused to give up her seat rosa parks

The Montgomery bus boycott began on December 5, 1955 and ended 381 days later on December 20, 1956, after the US Supreme Court declared segregated busing unconstitutional in Browder v. Gayle, (1956).

Rosa Parks inspired the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott held from December 5, 1955 through December 20, 1956, after she was arrested for refusing to give her bus seat to a white man.

Jo Ann Robinson (President, Women's Political Council) E. D. Nixon (President, local chapter of NAACP) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Elected President of the Montgomery Improvement Association) Ralph Abernathy (Vice-President of association) Johnnie Carr (civil rights leader, succeeded Dr. King as President) To view a list of other important participants, see Related Questions, below.

Arrested on Segregated Bus Rosa Parks (seamstress, former NAACP secretary) Rosa Parks' Attorney Clifford Durr Original Organizers of Boycott Jo Ann Robinson (President, Women's Political Council) E. D. Nixon (President, local chapter of NAACP) Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Elected President-Chairman) Ralph Abernathy (Vice-President of association) Johnnie Carr (civil rights leader, succeeded Dr. King as President) Robert S. Graetz (secretary of organization) Coretta Scott King Mother Pollard Bayard Rustin (civil rights leader, advised King on Gandhian peaceful resistance) L. Roy Bennett (first vice-president of MIA, succeeded by Ralph Abernathy) Moses W. Jones (second vice-president) Erna Dungee (financial secretary) U. J. Fields (recording secretary) W. J. Powell (succeeded U. J. Fields as recording secretary) E. N. French (corresponding secretary) C. W. Lee (assistant treasurer) A. W. Wilson (parliamentarian) Reverend R. J. Glasco Rev. L. Roy Bennett Rev. J. W. Hayes Rev. H. H. Hubbard Rev. J. C. Parker Glenn Smiley Maude Ballou Fred Gray (founding member MIA) Rev. Robert E. Hughes (negotiator) Lillie Thomas Armstrong Hunter Vernon Johns Rufus Lewis (nominated King as President of MIA) Thomas Mboya Solomon Seay Robert D. Nesbitt (executive board member, treasurer) Sandy Frederick Ray Lawrence Reddick (History Committee) T. Y. Rogers Gardner Taylor Irene West Mary Fair Burks Uretta Adair Juliette Hampton Morgan Rev. Joseph Lowery Virginia Durr N. W. Walton (History Committee) J. E. Pierce (History Committee) Jo Ann Robinson (founder, see above, History Committee) Rev. B. J. Simms (Transportation Dept.) (total MIA membership alleged to be 40,000-50,000) Browder v. Gayle, (1956) Plaintiffs of Browder v. Gayle Aurelia Browder Claudette Colvin Susie McDonald Mary Louise Smith Attorneys for Plaintiffs Fred Gray Charles Langford Charles Carter (NAACP, New York) Advisors to Attorneys, Browder v. Gayle Robert Carter (NAACP Legal Defense Fund) Thurgood Marshall (NAACP Legal Defense Fund) Defendants City of Montgomery, William Gayle, Mayor Alabama Public Service Commission Montgomery Board of Commissioners Chief of Police (unnamed) Montgomery City Lines, Inc. Mr. Blake (bus driver) Mr. Cleere (bus driver) Defense Attorneys Walter Knabe (Montgomery City Attorney) John Patterson (Alabama Attorney General) US District Court for Middle District of Alabama Judges Judge Johnson (Majority, for Plaintiffs) Judge Rives (Majority, for Plaintiffs) Judge Lynne (Dissenting) US Supreme Court (Affirmed, unanimous) Chief Justice Earl Warren Justice Hugo Black Justice Stanley Forman Reed Justice Felix Frankfurter Justice William O. Douglas Justice Harold Hitz Burton Justice Tom C. Clark Justice John Marshall Harlan II Justice William Brennan, Jr. Alabama v. M. L. King, (1956) Plaintiff of Alabama v. M. L. King State of Alabama Prosecuting Attorneys William Thetford Robert B. Stewart Maury D. Smith Defendant of Alabama v. M. L. King Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Conspiracy charges) Defense Attorneys Arthur D. Shores (NAACP) Fred Gray Charles Langford Peter A. Hall Orzell Billingsley Known Witnesses for Defense Thelma Williams Glass Georgia Gilmore Martha K. Walker Stella Brooks Henrietta Brinson Gladys Moore Known Witnesses for Prosecution Joe Azbell (journalist) Bunny Honicker (journalist) Montgomery Circuit Court Judge Judge Eugene Carter Provided Financial Support for Boycott and Legal Defense George Dennis Sale Kelsey Stanley Levinson Chester Bliss Bowles Archibald Carey NAACP Ralph Helstein Roy Wilkins Vivan Mason James Peck Charles C. Digs (House of Representatives, MI) William H. Gray Joseph Jackson In Friendship (others) Fundraising Concert Duke Ellington Harry Belafonte

The Montgomery bus boycott began on December 5, 1955 and ended 381 days later on December 20, 1956, after the US Supreme Court declared segregated busing unconstitutional in Browder v. Gayle, (1956). Martin Luther King, Jr., led the boycott with the assistance of the NAACP and many church pastors.

It wasn't so much sponsored as it was a natioon wide rebbelion againsts the bus conpanies. It was just inspired in the souls of people to stop rinding the busses till all people got correct rights.

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955, for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. Ms. Parks was well-respected within the African-American community, arousing outrage at the way she was treated by the bus company and police. African-American community leaders met to discuss the situation on December 4, and planned a one-day boycott of the Montgomery public transit system for December 5, 1955. What started as a one-day event eventually stretched 381 days, until December 20, 1956, as the community determined not to ride the buses again until they were integrated. The original organizers were Jo Ann Robinson, an English instructor at Alabama State College and President of Montgomery's Women's Political Council, and E. D. Nixon, President of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. During the meeting, the group formed a new alliance, the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), to which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was elected President and leader of the new civil rights movement. Rosa Parks unsuccessfully challenged the constitutionality of the segregation law in the Alabama state courts, where the appeals process threatened to drag on for years. Local attorneys Fred Gray and Charles Langford consulted with NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund attorneys, Robert Carter and Thurgood Marshall, whose successful campaign against segregation in education lead to the US Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, (1954). Carter and Marshall suggested choosing a new group of plaintiffs who had been discriminated against and abused by the busing company. The resulting suit, Browder v. Gayle, (1956), resulted in the Supreme Court affirming the US District Court for the Middle District of Alabama's ruling that the bus segregation was unconstitutional. For more information about Browder v. Gayle, (1956) and Rosa Parks' court cases, see Related Questions, below.

December 5, 1955, and ended December 20, 1956, 381 days more than a year.

December 1, 1955

it was the beginning of the Civil Rights movement in the USA

The reason the Montgomery bus boycott lasted more than a year, from December 5, 1955 until December 20, 1956, is that the city refused to integrate buses until the US Supreme Court declared its policy was unconstitutional in the case of Browder v. Gayle, (1956). Although the Court's decision was released on November 13, 1956, the city didn't desegregate until it was served with a court order on December 20.

The trigger event was the arrest of the black woman Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white man. In a later interview, Rosa Parks said: I did not want to be mistreated, I did not want to be deprived of a seat that I had paid for. It was just time... The more we gave in, the more we complied with that kind of treatment, the more oppressive it became. Apparently others felt the same. The night Rosa Parks was arrested, this flyer went out to the black community: Another woman has been arrested and thrown in jail because she refused to get up out of her seat on the bus for a white person to sit down... This has to be stopped. Negroes have rights too, for if Negroes did not ride the buses, they could not operate... We are, therefore, asking every Negro to stay off the buses Monday in protest of the arrest and trial. A church meeting the next day, led by Martin Luther King, proposed a citywide boycott of public transport. Enough blacks were fed up for the boycott to be a success; the public transport system lost so many passengers it came in serious economic trouble. The White Citizen's Council fought back by firebombing the house of Martin Luther King and several black churches, and arrested 156 boycotters for "hindering" the buses, among them King who was sentenced to more than a year in jail. This brought nationwide attention, and the Supreme Court eventually ruled that the racial segregation laws were unconstitutional. As for "why" compressed to a couple of sentences: Obviously because blacks didn't like being second-class citizens, and because there had been other civil rights protests elsewhere, enough to give the feeling that they didn't necessarily have to accept it. As Rosa put it, "it was just time...". See related links.

The majority of bus riders were African Americans committed to the boycott.

Dr. King and 89 other community leaders were indicted on charges of violating a 1921 Conspiracy law that prohibited boycotting lawful businesses. Dr. King was found guilty of conspiracy, but none of the others went to trial. King was fined $500 plus $500 court costs, or sentenced to 386 days in jail. Dr. King decided to appeal the case, converting the sentence into 386 days in jail; however, he remained out on his own recognizance while the matter was under consideration. The Alabama Court of Appeals rejected King's hearing in April 1957, because his lawyers missed the 60-day filing deadline. He ultimately paid the the fine, in December 1957. The case related to the Montgomery bus boycott that reached the US Supreme Court was Browder v. Gayle, (1956). Dr. King wasn't a party to that suit. Case: State of Alabama v. M. L. King, Jr., (1956) For more information about Browder v. Gayle, (1956) and related information, see Related Questions, below.

Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955, for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. Ms. Parks was well-respected within the African-American community, arousing outrage at the way she was treated by the bus company and police. African-American community leaders met to discuss the situation on December 4, 1955, and planned a one-day boycott of the Montgomery public transit system for the next day. What started as a single event eventually stretched 381 days, until December 20, 1956, as the community determined not to ride the buses again until they were integrated. The original organizers were Jo Ann Robinson, an English instructor at Alabama State College and President of Montgomery's Women's Political Council, and E. D. Nixon, President of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. During the meeting, the group formed a new alliance, the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), to which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was elected Chairman and President. Dr. King subsequently became the leader of the civil rights movement that lead to the US Supreme Court ruling (Browder v. Gayle, (1956)) denouncing segregation as unconstitutional.

it lead to equality and civilization and non discrimination based upom your race..and now African Americans are allowed to sit wherever they want on public bus services.