BeforeBefore there was a dream there was Montgomery

Sometimes a solitary act of courage can transform an entire community. That’s what happened in Montgomery, Alabama, when an African-American seamstress named refused to give up her bus seat to a white man. Arrested in December 1955 for violating Alabama’s segregation law, Mrs. Parks decided to fight back— with the support of her community. Their weapon of choice: neither guns nor violence, but a boycott. These historic events have been dramatically portrayed in the new hbo film Boycott. Visit www.timeclassroom.com/boycott for cool photos, BOYCOTTBOYCOTT NOTEBOOKNOTEBOOK original documents and more!

“Y’all better make it light on VERBATIM yourselves and let me have those seats.” “My feets is weary, but my James Blake, directing four black passengers to move soul is rested.” to the back of the Montgomery bus he was driving on December 1, 1955. Three of the four complied, Mother Pollard, an elderly Montgomery citizen, but the fourth, Rosa Parks, refused. during boycott. Some Montgomery residents walked as far as 12 miles per day rather than ride the buses. “I had been pushed as far as I could “[The question is not what] King stand to be pushed.... did for the people of Montgomery, I had decided that I would have to it’s what the people of Montgomery know once and for all what rights I did for Reverend King.” had as a human being and a citizen.” E. D. Nixon, veteran organizer and Rosa Parks, reflecting on why she refused community activist in Montgomery. to give up her seat on the bus. “Today the choice is no longer “If we granted the Negro these between violence and demands, they would go about . It is either boasting of a victory they had won nonviolence or nonexistence.” over the white people, and this we will not stand for.” Martin Luther King Jr. Jack Crenshaw, attorney for the Montgomery City Lines bus company. boycott by the NUMBERS

DECEMBER 1 Number of days boycott was originally planned to last. 382 Number of days boycott lasted.

10¢ Fare for a bus ride in Montgomery in 1955. $3000 Estimated amount, in dollars, that the bus company lost each day of the boycott.

2 Number of grades that Martin Luther King Jr. skipped as a high school student. 26 King’s age when he was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association in 1955. SPREADING THE WORD To commemorate 0 Percentage of Montgomery’s bus drivers the boycott and help popularize the philosophy in 1955 who were African American. of nonviolence, an international pacifist organ- 69 Percentage of Montgomery’s bus ization called the Fellowship of Reconciliation for) for drivers today who are African American. ( created this comic book. The distributed some 200,000 copies of this book worldwide. called by God: “It seemed,” he reflect- lowing King’s death, he became the who’swho’s WHOWHO ed, “that I could hear an inner voice sclc’s president. Abernathy’s autobi- saying to me, ‘Martin Luther, stand ography, And the Walls Came Tumbling The Leaders Behind the Boycott up for righteousness, stand up for Down, was published in 1989. justice, stand up for truth.’ ” After the When the Montgomery boycott, King became an interna- Four days after the bus boycott began in tionally known civil rights leader, Supreme Court out- December 1955, Rosa combining the social gospel of his lawed school seg- Lee McCauley Parks faith with Gandhi’s techniques of regation in the land- was already a seasoned nonviolent protest. He was awarded mark 1954 case of civil rights activist working to bring the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and Brown v. Board of Education, Jo Ann an end to segregation. In her own was only 39 at the time of his assas- Robinson wrote a remarkable letter words, she had “a life history of being sination in 1968. to the mayor of Montgomery, threat- rebellious against being mistreated ening a boycott of the city buses because of my color.” Forty-two at because of abusive treatment of black the time of her arrest, Parks had been was born in rural Ala- passengers. Galvanized into activism active in the Montgomery chapter of bama, where her fam- after a racist driver humiliated her the National Association for the Ad- ily suffered greatly in 1949, she served as president of vancement of Colored People () during the Jim Crow era: racists the activist Women’s Political Council for more than a decade. A few burned down the family sawmill, (wpc) and as an English professor at months before the boycott, her apparently intent on punishing the Alabama State College. On the night resolve to create change in Mont- Scotts for their success in business. of Rosa Parks’ arrest, Robinson typed gomery was bolstered when she par- She attended Antioch College in Ohio a flyer asking blacks not to ride city ticipated in an activist training pro- and went on to study singing at the buses the next Monday, then stayed gram at the Highlander Folk School New England Conservatory of Music up most of the night mimeographing in Tennessee. Later described as “the in Boston. In 1953 she married Martin thousands of copies. She not only set mother of the ,” Luther King Jr.; he later wrote that the boycott in motion but remained Parks was fired from her job as a “her sense of optimism and balance one of its most active leaders. seamstress in Montgomery and ...were to be my constant support.” moved with her husband to Mich- Mrs. King and her four children con- Through his travels to igan, where she became the manager tinue to work for a better society India in the late 1940s of Congressman John Conyers’ office. through the King Center for Non- and his pioneering violent Social Change, which she efforts to end segrega- Dr. Martin Luther founded in 1969 as a memorial to Dr. tion, King Jr. was 25 King. Her memoir, My Life With Martin became an expert on when he arrived Luther King, Jr., was published in 1969. how to conduct a nonviolent protest. in Montgomery in He shared these insights with Dr. 1954 to become Reverend Ralph King during the bus boycott, cau- pastor of Dexter Abernathy moved tioning against the armed guards Avenue Baptist Church. Though new to Montgomery in King had posted at his house. While as a minister, King was able to draw 1951 after receiving Rustin’s guidance was valued, he was on his family’s strong tradition in the a master’s degree in also seen as a liability: he was a for- church. His father, known as “Daddy sociology from Atlanta University. At mer member of the Young Com- King,” was the influential pastor of the time of the bus boycott, he was munist League and had been jailed in Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church. the 30-year-old pastor of Mont- 1953 on a “morals charge” stemming The younger King studied religion at gomery’s First Baptist Church and a from his homosexuality. Rustin left Morehouse College in Atlanta and close friend of King. Abernathy was Montgomery in response to these went on to receive a Ph.D. in theolo- instrumental in founding the concerns but continued as a behind- gy from Boston University. Initially Montgomery Improvement Associa- the-scenes adviser to Dr. King. He reluctant to become a leader of the tion (mia) and later worked with King went on to organize the 1963 bus protest, King eventually changed to establish the Southern Christian on Washington, where King deliv- his mind, believing he had been Leadership Conference (sclc); fol- ered his “” speech.

credits Page 2: Comic book courtesy of Fellowship of Reconciliation. courtesy of Booker T. Lee and the University of Tennessee Press; Rustin: courtesy Page 3: Parks: Paul Schutzer/Time Pix; King: /Magnum Photos; of the Estate of Bayard Rustin. Page 4 (left to right): Elliott Erwitt/Magnum Photos; Coretta King: AP Wide World Photos; Abernathy: Associated Press; Robinson: Bruce Davidson/Magnum Photos; Don Cravens for Life magazine, © Time Pix. MILESTONESMILESTONES IN IN CIVIL CIVIL RIGHTS RIGHTS HISTORY HISTORY

June 3, 1946 U.S. Supreme Court December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks is outlaws segregation on interstate arrested in Montgomery for refus- buses in the case of v. ing to give up her seat to a white Commonwealth of . passenger. of the Women’s Political Council (wpc) April 15, 1947 As immediately makes leaflets call- a rookie with the ing for a one-day bus boycott to Brooklyn Dodgers, protest the arrest of Mrs. Parks. Jackie Robinson becomes the first December 5, 1955 The bus August 28, 1963 A coalition of civil African American protest begins; local black lead- rights groups holds the March on to play in major ers form the Montgomery Im- Washington for Jobs and Freedom, league baseball. provement Association and organized by Bayard Rustin and name the young pastor Martin A. Philip Randolph. With 250,000 Luther King Jr. as its president. participants, it is at the time the largest civil demonstration in U.S. January 30, 1956 King’s house in history. Dr. King gives his historic Montgomery is bombed; no King “I Have a Dream” speech. family members are injured. July 2, 1964 President Lyndon B. November 13, 1956 The U.S. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act Supreme Court rules that bus seg- into law. regation in Montgomery and all of Alabama is illegal, upholding a December 10, lower court decision in Browder v. 1964 Martin February 25, 1948 Martin Luther Gayle. Luther King Jr. King Jr. is ordained a minister is awarded the December 21, 1956 King and Parks May 17, 1954 U.S. Supreme Court Nobel Peace are among the first passengers to votes 9-0 to outlaw segregation in Prize in Oslo, ride as Montgomery City Lines public education in the landmark Norway. resumes full service in an inte- case of Brown v. Board of Education grated manner. February 21,1965 is of Topeka, Kansas. This ruling over- murdered in Harlem. turns the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson and the principle of “sep- March 21-25, 1965 King and John arate but equal.” Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee lead the March 2, 1955 Fifteen-year-old Selma-to-Montgomery march is arrested in demanding voting rights in Montgomery, Alabama, for refus- Alabama. ing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. Black leaders April 4, 1968 Martin Luther September 25, 1957 decide not to use Colvin’s case to King Jr. is assassinated at the Nine black students press for changes in the segre- Lorraine Motel in Memphis. desegregate Little gated bus system when they learn Rock Central High November 2, 1983 President that the unwed teenager is sever- School, but only after Ronald Reagan signs into law al months pregnant. President Dwight D. the bill declaring Martin August 28, 1955 Fourteen-year- Eisenhower sends Luther King Day a national old is murdered in 10,000 paratroopers holiday. Starting in 1986, the Mississippi after allegedly insult- and members of the holiday is observed on the ing a white woman. National Guard to protect them. third Monday in January.

Copyright © 2001 Time School Publishing. | Published in partnership with hbo Films. | Printed in the U.S.A. Boycott artwork © Home Box Office, a Division of Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P. All rights reserved. HBO® is a service mark of Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P.