dec 5, 1955 - Montgomery Bus Boycott
Description:
The Montgomery Bus Boycott, which began in December 1955 and ended a year later, is often considered to be the starting point of the African American Civil Rights Movement.
The boycott was the first community action that brought nationwide attention to the civil rights struggle, and was the first sustained, large-scale, community-wide protest by African Americans in a southern city.
Perhaps as importantly, it triggered the emergence of the charismatic, 27-year-old civil rights leader, the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, and catalyzed the creation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the organization that would often lead significant protests and demonstrations over the next decades.
On 2 March 1955, Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old African American girl was arrested for refusing to give up her set to a white woman.
Later that month, ED Nixon, former president of the Alabama NAACP, Jo Ann Robinson, NAACP secretary Rosa Parks, voter registration activist Rufus A Lewis, and the recently appointed pastor of Dexter Avenue Church, Martin Luther King, Jr, met with city officials to discuss city bus seating policies.
In April, Aurelia S Browder refused to give up her seat and she, too, was arrested.
Another African American woman, Mary Louise Smith, was arrested in October, also for refusing to give up her seat.
By the time Rosa Parks was arrested for the same crime on 1 December, a series of civil disobedient acts by several African American women had occurred.
The boycott was successful; almost no African Americans boarded city buses that Monday.
The following day, the Montgomery civil rights leaders, including Reverend Ralph David Abernathy, Nixon, Lewis and King formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA); King, a surprise choice at just 27 years old, was elected president.
The MIA was created for the sole purpose of overseeing a longer boycott.
Many of Montgomery's white citizens believed that no boycott involving Montgomery's 40,000 African Americans could be the result of voluntary cooperation: African Americans were surely being coerced by "goon squads".
Motorcycle police were ordered to follow buses to ensure that those wanting to ride were free to do so, but there were no such "goon squads" to be found.
On the night of 30 January 1956, King'd home was bombed while his wife, Coretta, and his young daughter were home.
The boycott continued and, with the support of the White Citizens' Council, city officials tried to break it, even bringing conspiracy charges against 90 boycott leaders of 21 February.
The trial and conviction of King brought nationwide attention to the cause in March, including funds and strong support.
On 5 June, the federal court in Montgomery ruled that Alabama's bus segregation laws violated the 14th Amendment.
On 13 November, the US Supreme Court affirmed the lower court ruling.
On 14 November MIA members voted to continue the boycott until city leaders agreed to implement the US Supreme Court order.
Finally, on 20 December and a year after the boycott had begun, city leaders ended the policy of segregated buses.
Added to timeline:
U.S. Civil Rights Movement
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