Introduction

❏ Montgomery:
❏ Capital of Alabama
❏ 70,000 whites and 50,000 blacks
❏ Jim Crow
❏ Black people in low-paid and unskilled jobs:
❏ 60% women domestics and 50% men domestics or labourers
❏ Black wage ½ that of white wage
❏ >50 black churches in Montgomery; accepted segregation

❏ Inequality:
❏ 1952 Jeremiah Reeves: accused of rape and executed:
❏ White rapists unpunished
❏ Black people not allowed hold public office
❏ Black people not allowed vote

❏ Bus Company:
❏ No black drivers
❏ Black and white passengers segregated:
❏ Claudette Colvin and Mary-Louise Smith arrested for breaking bus laws
❏ Black passengers were routinely humiliated and abused

Rosa Parks
❏ Bio:
❏ Seamstress in downtown department store
❏ Secretary of Mongtomery NAACP

❏ 1 December 1955:
❏ Refused to give up seat to white man
❏ Arrested
❏ To appear in court on 5 December
❏ E.D. Nixon (Alabama NAACP) payed her bail and planned her court defense:
❏ Needed support of other black leaders to challenge racism.
❏ Reverend Abernathy and Reverend Martin Luther King helped

The Bus Boycott

❏ Organisation:
❏ Jo-Ann Robinson of WPCM asked blacks to boycott on day of Park’s trial
❏ 35,000 leaflets
❏ Black ministers supported
❏ Black taxis charged bus fare to blacks

❏ Boycott:
❏ Almost 100% support from blacks
❏ Buses empty
❏ Parks convicted:
❏ Nixon called for an appeal
 ❏ Montgomery Improvement Association:
❏ To oversee boycott
❏ King elected president - ‘black community ‘tired of being segregated and humiliated’
❏ MIA would not end boycott until bus segregation was stopped.
❏ MIA demanded:
❏ Black drivers
❏ Drivers be courteous to passengers
❏ Seats filled on first come, first served basis

Continued Boycotting
❏ Risks:
❏ Cooperation was essential

❏ Advantages:
❏ Action without violence
❏ Sense of solidarity
❏ Lose buses money

❏ Organisation:
❏ Transportation Committee to help blacks find alternative transport
❏ Money raised for private taxi service by:
❏ Black churches raised $30,000
❏ Black workers
❏ NAACP
❏ United Auto Workers’ Union
❏ Montgomery Jewish Community
❏ Sympathetic Whites
❏ Black churches became dispatch centres
❏ Local insurance agents tried to cancel insurance:
❏ Blacks insured with Lloyds of London instead

King and Gale

❏ Bio:
❏ Reverend at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church Montgomery
❏ Powerful public speaker
❏ Active NAACP member
❏ Well-liked among blacks
❏ Threw himself into MIA role

❏ 8 December 1955:
❏ King and other MIA leaders met Tacky Gale, Montgomery Mayor, and bus reps
❏ Broadcast nationally
❏ King tried to reach a compromise:
❏ Bus companies refused to change their policies
❏ Gale did not take the boycott seriously
White Reaction
❏ Opposition:
❏ Rumours King used MIA funds to buy a new car:
❏ King offered to resign but MIA refused
❏ MIA supported King
❏ 22 January 1956:
❏ City authority falsely announced settlement
❏ King denounced reports
❏ Boycott continued
❏ Police arrested carpool drivers of black people
❏ Black people waiting for lift arrested for loitering
❏ King arrested for doing 30mph in 25mph zone
❏ February 1956:
❏ 89 blacks arrested for breaking old boycotting law
❏ King arrested too
❏ Ku Klux Klan
❏ Bombed black churches
❏ Destroyed carpool cars
❏ Assaulted black people
❏ Threatening letters and phone calls

❏ Media
❏ National and international media coverage
❏ Covered boycott itself and white reaction to it

Supreme Court Judgement

❏ NAACP lawsuit:
❏ Reached Supreme Court in Washington:
❏ Supreme Court ruled 13 November 1956 bus laws were unconstitutional
❏ Seating arrangements to stop on 20 December
❏ 21 December 1956, King and Glenn Smiley sat in front of the bus

After the Boycott

❏ After:
❏ MIA spent $225,000 on 381 day boycott
❏ MIA caused loss of $250,000 to bus company
❏ King on cover of Time as American Gandhi
❏ Whites tried and failed to set up white only bus
❏ KKK:
❏ 40 carloads terrorised black neighbourhoods night of Supreme Court ruling
❏ Reverend Abernathy’s house and church bombed
❏ Whites horrified and condemned KKK
❏ Significance:
❏ Well-organised and peace resistance; set an example
❏ New method of nonviolent protest:
❏ James Meredith University of Mississippi
❏ Lunch Counter Protests
❏ Freedom Rides
❏ Selma to Montgomery march
❏ Source of pride for blacks
❏ King founded Southern Christian Leadership Conference 1957
❏ King used influence to ensure Civil Rights Act 1964 and Voting Rights Act 1964 passed
❏ Boycott supported by press and television outside of the south
❏ Used in Birmingham, Alabama
❏ Highlighted role of black churches and religious leaders
❏ Supreme Court decision
❏ Failed to end Jim Crow