RULES ABOUT SEGREGATION ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT:
- Black Americans had to follow the instructions of the white drivers
- Front of bus reserved for whites
- Blacks could not sit next to whites even if there was s eat vacant next to them
- Blacks had to stand to make room for a white person if the bus was full
The Course of Events
- Thursday 1st Dec 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man and was arrested
- Jo Ann Robinson, leader of the Montgomery Women’s Political Council, with support from students, printed 1000s of leaflets encouraging people to boycott buses
- Decided to hold a 1 day boycott on Monday 5th Dec – day of Parks’ trial
- Local civil rights activists E. D. Nixon, Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King Jr became involved
- Planned a rally for the evening of trial
- NAACP prepared a legal challenge to segregation
- At the rally the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was set up
- Aims were to oversee the boycott, improve race relations in the area & change policy of black Americans standing when white seats were vacant
- 20,000 people involved
- 7000 attended the rally
- MLK gave inspirational speech – promoted non-violence
- Humiliated and oppressed in their own country
- Patience had ended
- Guided by law and order
- Rosa Parks fined $10 and $4costs
- MIA decided to continue boycott and push for complete desegregation on buses
- Black taxi companies only charged 10 cents per ride
- An obscure Montgomery law was invoked stating min fare had to be 45 cents
- Too expensive for black workers
- Churches bought cars to take people to work
- Had specific pick-up places
- People were harassed by police while waiting for their lift – local laws about crowds gathering
- Police tried to intimidate drivers & arrested them for minor traffic violations BUT the boycott continued
- The Montgomery White Council led organised opposition
- Membership increased to 12000 by March 1956 & included leading city officials
- Extreme violence used against the boycotters
- Jan 1956 MLK’s home firebombed
- 90 leading civil rights activists arrested for organising an illegal boycott – found guilty but no faced no charges after an appeal
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