HISTORY OF THE MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT

On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks, a 40 year old black seamstress, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on the bus. "...the only tired I was, was tired of giving in," says Rosa Parks. She was lso part of an organization, called the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.) The NAACP played a huge role in trying to stop segregation. The NAACP was looking for someone that would stand up to the court system in a test case. Before Rosa Parks was chosen for the test case, there were two women befor her that were arrested for not giving up their seats, and the NAACP tried to use them for a test case aswell. Neither of these women proved to be suitable candidates for the test case that would end segregation. The day Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat, the NAACP knew that she was the perfent test case.

After Rosa Parks was taken to jail and fingerprinted she was allowed one phone call, which she made to her Reverend, E.B Nixon. He was the president of the NAACP in Montgomery, Alabama. Nixon called the Washington D.C. NAACP, who decided that they needed to "move on it today. " The next calls were to Reverend A. Philip Randolph and Reverend Martin L. King. From there, they decided they were going to hold an eight o'clock meeting at the local Baptist church in Montgomery. That night, they agreed that they were going to start the protest on December 5, the day of Rosa Parks' trial. The next day, flyers were passed out to every black elementary, junior high, and high school in Montgomery, that announced a protest to be held December 5 in front of the court house. There were also signs posted on every bus stop, that read, "Don't ride the bus today, don't ride it for freedom." This was the beginning of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which effected U.S. history, and specifically rights for blacks, forever.

The protest challenged the policy of bus segregation. On the day of Rosa Parks trial almost the whole black community did not ride the busses at all. The protest really hurt the bus systems. More than 66% of the riders on the busses were blacks, therefore, most of the income for the bus company came from black riders. On the morning of December 5, when they stopped riding the busses, Coretta King looked out her window and yelled to her husband, Martin Luther King, that the busses were empty. They both knew that the Boycott was going to change the way blacks were treated.

The black community did not use violence to protest bus segregation, they used a non-violent protest. They simply stopped using the bus system to show that they weren't going to be treated unfairly, by the community , government and bus system. Every week the black community would meet at the First Baptist Church and have a meeting about the protest. These gatherings were the inspiration and the backbone of the Boycott. The white community did not like the protest and tried to stop it many times. The black people would not fight back when white people would try to start a fight with them, and this was very powerful. When they would be car pooling to their destinations, cops would pull them over and say it was against the law to drive an un-authorized taxi. The K.K.K. would raid through the black neighborhoods and yell and humiliate the black community. In response, the blacks sat on their porches and all clapped together. The K.K.K. then turned to violence for intimidation. They bombed Martin Luther King Jr.'s and E.B. Nixon's house. Then, the police started arresting the blacks for no reason. However, this did not stop blacks from protesting. They remained non-violent and because of this method they won in the end.

After 381 days of boycotting the busses they went to the Supreme Court to prove that it was not legal to segregate blacks from whites on public transportation. Eventually, the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to separate people based on their race. When the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the blacks, they knew it was going to change their way of life. This victory inspired blacks to challenge other segregation issues all the way to the Supreme Court. This Boycott ended something horrible and started something wonderful. They really accomplished a lot. The proof of how things have changed is shown in the improved rights of black people today. They stopped segregation on busses, and it gave them a chance to stop segregation in other public establishments. The black community of Montgomery proved that having a non-violent protest can create positive change. They provided a starting point in the fight for racial equality.