Montgomery Bus Boycott and the role of Rosa Parks

Question 1

What was the background and development of the boycott?

Answer 1

→ 1953 Baton Rouge Bus Boycott
→ Arrest of Claudette Colvin (a 15-year-old school girl who defended her right to a seat on the bus)
→ Emmett Till Murder
→ Women’s Political Council (WPC) meeting with Mayor W. A. Gayle (led by Jo Anne Robinson) and refusal of changes

Question 2

Who was Rosa Parks?

Answer 2

→ Member of NAACP as investigator in cases of sexual assault
→ worked on desegrating schools after Brown v Board of Education

Parks was a revolutionary in the context of her own oppression but the idea of her being a political activist was incomprehensible due to the racial assumptions of white citizens

Question 3

What was the incident?

Answer 3

On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks, a Black seamstress and civil rights activist, was arrested after she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a segregated city bus, defying the laws that forced Black passengers to sit at the back and give up their seats when the front was full.

• Fined 10 dollars and a 4-dollar court fee

Question 4

Who were the MIA, and what did they do?

Answer 4

5th December: 90% of black citizens stayed off buses →

8th December: Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), led by MLK gave a list of demands:

• Courteous treatment by bus drivers
• First-come, first-served seating for all
• Black bus operators on predominantly black routes

& organised a carpool system of about 300 cars

Question 5

Effects of the boycott?

Answer 5

• Montgomery Improvement Association
• King and Nixon’s houses bombed (1956)
• City officials indicted 89 boycott leaders for interfering with lawful business
• King was tried and convicted to serve 386 days in jail, with national coverage

Question 6

How did the boycott end?

Answer 6

Browder v Gayle (1956)

→ Ruled segregation as unconstitutional and struck down laws on bus seating

20 December 1956: King calls for end of boycott

Question 7

Significance of the boycott?

Answer 7

→ Overall, a limited victory at best, as Montgomery remained strictly segregated
→ The action gained international attention and highlighted the depth of racism and extremism amongst southern whites
→ Shows the effectiveness of non-violent action, giving a significant moral boost to the movement
→ Brought Martin Luther King to prominence, where he created the SCLC