 |
The
Montgomery bus boycott (1955)
The beginning of the American civil
rights movement with Martin Luther King |
In Montgomery, Alabama segregation
was a part of everyday life. Blacks who lived there faced segregation in places
such as parks, schools, restrooms, theaters and buses. The laws of the country
made it hard for blacks to register and participate in elections. The justice
system often proved discriminatory towards them, unjustly jailing and executing
many, while banning them from holding public office.
One
particular area of resentment amongst Montgomery blacks of that era was the
segregation law of the bus system. Blacks were the majority of the clientele of
the buses accounting for 60% of the riders. Yet, they often were forced to
adhere to oppressive conditions on buses. The bus drivers, all of who were
white, treated blacks with racist and abusive attitudes, often calling their
passengers derogatory names such as "nigger", "black cow",
and "black ape". They often required blacks to pay their fares in the
front of the bus, and then walk to the back door to board the bus. Sometimes
though, bus drivers would take off before the passenger could get on leaving
their passenger behind. While, this practice often angered blacks, the practices
of "white-only" seating outrage them even more.
The law
stated that blacks could not sit in the front of the bus, regardless of whether
the seats were empty or not. They were only allowed to sit in the unreserved
seating in the back of the bus. Even then, if the bus was full and a white
person wanted to sit the black person would have to give up their seat on the
bus. Since the 1900's, on streetcars there had been segregation on public
transportation in Montgomery. But, by the late 1940's blacks were fed up with
the embarrassment and anger that the felt every time they rode the bus. "It
was very humiliating having to suffer the indignity of riding segregated buses
twice a day, five days a week, to go downtown and work for white people",
said activist Rosa Parks.
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Though the years of segregation of
the bus was the object of discontentment in many black lives, the group failed
to unite and protest these laws because of many factors. Martin Luther King jr.
cited issues within the community, such as a strong lack of leadership, and
uninterested educated elite that contributed to lack of protest. Starting in the
early 1950's a few individuals and groups had begun to try to protest the law
but were not making much headway in the community. However, when
fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her seat
to a white passenger the black community's resentment of the status quo
increased. Within the next couple of months, Mary Louise Smith an
eighteen-year-old student refused to give up her seat on the bus and was
arrested on the spot. Both of these young women were tried and fined, adding to
the anger of the black citizens of Montgomery.
The
fuel that lit the fire came on the evening of December 1, 1955, when a
seamstress and former NAACP secretary named Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland
Avenue bus in downtown Montgomery. When the white bus driver asked the blacks
that were sitting in the segregated part to move to accommodate more whites,
everyone complied except for Parks. Parks took a stand and refused to get up.
Minutes later she was arrested and sent to a Montgomery jail.
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After hearing of the arrest of
Parks, members of the black community decided that a boycott of the bus system
was long overdue. JoAnn Robinson of the Women's Political Committe began to
organize a one day protest. When the word spread about the protest several other
black leaders wanted to convene. Under the leadership of E.D. Nixon, former
chair of the NAACP of Alabama, Martin Luther King jr., Ralph Abernathy, H.H.
Hubbard, and Ms. A.W. West an organized movement was finally underway. A meeting
was held the day after Parks arrest and many Montgomery activists attended the
session. The group ranged from students, to church groups, to prominent
community elites; from there it was decided that in order to combat the racism
of the segregation laws a boycott was vital.
In order, to efficiently carry out
this goal, the Montgomery Improvement Association was formed, with King as their
leader. The MIA adopted a plan of action for the protest that was officially to
begin on December 5. The resolution baically stated three demands:
1.) Blacks would not ride the buses
until polite treatment by bus drivers were guaranteed to them.
2.) Segregation must be abolished
on buses and a first come first served policy adapted and
3.) The
employment of black bus drivers.
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From day one, the bus boycott
proved to be immediately successful. Leaders had anticipated about 60% of blacks
to participate in the movement, but at the end of day one it was predicted that
there was nearly 100% cooperation. People had utilized other ways of
transportation such as walking, using cabs, getting rides in private cars and
some even rode mules to work.
On the forth day boycotters met
with the bus company and other various government leaders to try to find a happy
compromise. However, the leaders were unrelenting and the city created a law
that would make it harder for blacks to use cabs. Before, black cab companies
would charge 10 cents a ride, the same as the bus, but now city law stated that
cabs had to charge a minimum of 45 cents a passenger. This was a big blow to the
moment because over 17, 500 blacks utilized the bus system at least twice a day.
So, the MIA's first mission was to come up with a organized system of
transportation for blacks.They woked it out a "private taxi", where
people with cars picked up other boycotters and took them to work. This system
mainly consisted of ministers, educaotors, laborers, businessmen, and even white
men from the airforce. White housives also refused to be without their servants,
and many picked them up and drove them home on a daily basis.
Later
on as the boycott began to grow longer and whites began to tire of the
unrelenting blacks, they tried to use several methods to end the boycott. These
included, leaking false reports that the boycott was over, violence, and
eventally arresting blacks for several misdemanor offenses. But these methods
failed to disunify the protesters and the movement went on.
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However, leaders decided that they
could no longer try to fight the county of Montgomery, so they filed a federal
lawsuit against Montgomery's segregation laws. because it was not in accordance
with the fourteenth amendment. The fourteenth amenment stated...They also spoke
against the unecessary harassment of blacks by Montgomery government and law
officials.
On May
11, 1956 the case was heard before a three panel federal court. The judges
ranged from extremely radical to totally liberal. The cities' lawyers tried to
argue that if segregation would end then there would be rash amounts of
bloodshed and violence throughout the city. After listening to these arguements,
one judge asked, "Is it fair to command one man to surrender his
constitutional rights, if they are his constitutional rights, in order to
prevent one man from committing a crime?". On June 4, 1956, about three
weeks later in a two to one descion, it was decided that the segregation laws
were indeed unconstitutional. Yet the movement was not over yet since the
Montgomery county lawyers immediately stated that they were going to appeal the
decision in the Supreme Court. While the boycotters were waiting for the Supreme
court to rule the protest continued.
During that time, incidences continued to try to end
the movement. Reverend Robert Graetz a white minister, who served a
predominately black church, had his house bombed. However, the family was out of
town, and no injuries occured. The Mayor denounced the incident as a publicity
stunt by blacks and reinterated the fact that whites did not care if the boycott
lasted forever. Soon the harassment by cops increased and insurance policies
were canceled swifter. The law was making it virtually impossible for the
carpool system to occur and eventually the city sued leaders of the movement
citing that the car pool was a "public nuiscance" and an illegal
"private enterprise". On November 13, 1956 leaders prepared to face on
of the darkest days of the movement. They knew that if the car pool system was
no longer available for transportation that many people might be forced to ride
the buses.
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While in court awaiting the descion
about the status of the carpools in Montgomery King recieved a message from the
federal court. It simply stated that "the motion to affirm is granted and
the judgement is affirmed". This meant that the Supreme court supported the
descion that segregation on the buses was illegal. Even though the Montgomery
jury ruled that carpooling was illegal, it was no longer neccessary.
The next night the official boycott
was called to an end; but citizens were asked to not ride the buses until the
official mandate arrived. Reverend Graetz spoke the words of the letter of Paul
to the Corinthians, reinterating the non-violent principles: "Though I have
all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am
nothing...Love suffereth long, and is kind..."
However,
it was soon announced that the order would not reach Montgomery for about a
month. Faced with the obstacle of not being able to participate in carpools, a
"share a ride" system was worked out, and the buses remained empty for
another month. Finally on December 20, 1956 the mandate came to Montgomery. The
next day King , Abernathy, and Nixon were the first to integrate the buses. The
boycott was finally over.
[Taken from: Reniqua Allen - www.home.att.net/~reniqua/index.htm]
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