The Long Walk Home

THE LONG WALK HOME

Description: This is a film about the 1955 Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott and its effect on inhabitants of the city. The focus is on a white middle class family whose members have divergent views on the protest.

Benefits of the Movie: This film can be used to reveal how nonviolent civil disobedience works on the mind of the public, including members of the oppressor class. In this case, a white woman becomes convinced that it is not fair to require blacks to sit at the back of the bus or to stand when there are seats available at the front. She stands up to the male power structure and all her friends in order to do the right thing and help the protestors. The movie gives us a glimpse of the lifestyles of middle class whites and poor blacks in Alabama in 1955. The film also reveals some of the sacrifices endured by the black citizens of Montgomery during the boycott.

Helpful Background:

Non-violent civil disobedience is a powerful force when it shows the public, including those who benefit from the system sought to be changed, that the status quo is inconsistent with their ethical principles and the way that they want their society to work. When the situation is presented to them in stark relief, in the media and glare of public opinion, the inconsistency becomes to much to bear. Thus, the lunch counter sit-ins, in which black college students asked to be served lunch at the same counters used by whites, placed in stark relief the unfairness of denying service to black patrons. The protests in front of courthouses seeking the right to vote, made it crystal clear that denying the vote to blacks was inconsistent with democratic values. The prospect of black workers, too poor to own a car but too proud to sit at the back of the bus, walking to work or depending on rides from fellow protestors, awakened the nation to the injustice of unequal treatment of blacks. For more on non-violent civil disobedience see the Learning Guides to Gandhi and A Force More Powerful.

In 1955 Rosa Parks, a black woman, refused to give her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, municipal bus to a white passenger. She was arrested. This incident sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, one of the early galvanizing events of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. The Boycott lasted until the buses were officially desegregated in December of 1956 when a federal court ruled that segregation in municipal bus lines was unconstitutional. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was led by a little known young preacher, Martin Luther King.

Rosa Parks was not just a poor seamstress and housekeeper who got fed up one day and started this momentous event. She was also a Civil Rights activist, having served as secretary of the Montgomery branch of the NAACP many years before. Rosa Parks remained active in the Civil Rights Movement after the boycott and established a foundation to offer guidance to black children. She won the NAACP's Springman Medal in 1970 and the Martin Luther King Jr. Award in 1980.

The movie shows Mrs. Thompson driving Odessa, her maid, to and from work. Initially, Odessa sat in the back seat of the car. It was the custom in the South in the 1950s and 60s that when a white woman drove her black maid to and from work, the maid sat in the back seat of the car. The maids were usually too poor to own cars and there was inadequate public transportation. Therefore, many white women drove their maids to and from work. But it was not deemed appropriate for the maid to sit in the front seat along with her white employer because sitting together in the front seat of a car implied equality and close association.

This custom led to some interesting situations. One anecdote from Tallahassee, Florida, goes like this. An overweight white male newspaper reporter with a liberal bent and a sense of humor was once slowly ambling across an intersection. The traffic light changed while he was still in the middle of the street. A white woman who was taking her maid home from work was stopped at the light. The maid was, per custom, in the back seat. When the light changed, the reporter was still in the intersection and the woman could not proceed without running him over. Frustrated, she honked at the reporter. The reporter, now walking a little faster, went over to the open rear window of the car and said to the maid, "Madam, please ask your chauffeur to be more patient!"

In reaction to the Civil Rights Movement, some segregationists who didn't want to suffer the stigma of actually joining the Ku Klux Klan organized groups called "White Citizens Councils." These organizations promoted a racist agenda similar to that of the Klan but claimed respectability. In the movie, Mr. Thompson, the heroine's husband, joins one of these groups.

Another anecdote that circulated among liberal circles in the South during the late 1950s and early 1960s related to a Jewish businessman in Atlanta, Georgia who was active in the Atlanta White Citizens Council. He was elected to the Board of Directors. At one meeting, the Grand Dragon of the Klan was a guest Speaker. He was given a rousing reception. The Grand Dragon closed his speech with the cry: "And after we get the niggers, we're gonna get the Jews and the Catholics!" The Jewish businessman had a heart attack, or so the story went.

Discussion Questions:

Why did Odessa's son (when he was trying to stop the white boys from beating his sister) relax his hands and make no effort to defend himself when the white boys turned on him?

Would you consider Rosa Parks a role model?

Would you consider the character of Mrs. Thompson in the film to be a female role model?

Why was it difficult for the blacks in Montgomery in 1955 to admit to their white employers that they supported and/or participated in the boycott? It was something more than fear of being fired. What else was it?

Did you notice that at the beginning of the movie, when Mrs. Thompson drove Odessa to work, Odessa sat in the back seat of the car? Later, Mrs. Thompson invited Odessa to sit in the front seat. What was the significance of this invitation?

Major Character Actor/Actress Odessa Carter Whoopi Goldberg Miriam Thompson Sissy Spacek Norman Thompson Dwight Schultz Tunker Thompson Dylan Baker Cotter Ving Rhames

What to Watch For

The Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-56 was in a very real sense the beginning og the civil rights movement in the American South. This film portrays the events of the boycott through the eyes of two families, the affluent white family, the Thompsons, and the family of their black maid, Odessa Cotter. The screenwriter of the film, John Cork, grew up in Montgomery, so the behaviors and look of the film are accurate. Although it may seem shocking today, the attitudes expressed by the whites in the film were not atypical of the time period. It is important to note that despite the existence of the racist white citizen’s group, which Norm Thompson join in the film, there were many whites in Montgomery who did support the boycott. The well-organized car-pool system portrayed did, in fact, exist. The minister of the church where the blacks go for support is Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. The Montgomery bus boycott was King’s first real success with non-violent protest. Note the increasing tension between Miriam and her husband. This film also deals with Miriam’s growing independence and individualism. Vocabulary

Boycott

The Klan

Segregation

Questions Based on The Film

1. Why are the black residents of Montgomery boycotting the city buses?

______

2. Compare Christmas at the Thompson household with that of the Cotters.

______

3. What are some of the attitudes expressed by the Thompson relatives about blacks?

______

4. What happens to Selma when she tries to ride the bus to the other side of town?

______

5. How does Miriam change during the course of the film?

______