Alabama


 * Montgomery Bus Boycott **

Courtesy of Gareth Stevens Publishing



The Montgomery bus boycott occurred in Montgomery, Alabama
 * African Americans tried to end racial segregation on city buses by boycotting the vehicles.
 * Took place from December 5, 1955 to December 20, 1956.
 * General conditions leading to boycott:
 * city ordinances requiring blacks to ride in designated sections in the rear of municipal buses
 * discourteous and violent treatment of African Americans by white city bus drivers
 * blacks' resentment and protest of segregation, violence, and mistreatment—at times resulting in arrests of blacks and violent confrontations between black riders and white bus drivers
 * formation of black organization, the Women's Political Council (WPC) that had as one of its goals the elimination of segregated city buses.


 * Immediate event leading to boycott:
 * the arrest of Rosa Parks, forty-two-year-old black seamstress and former secretary of local NAACP, for refusing to surrender her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white male passenger on December 1, 1955.


 * Parks' arrest, coupled with long-term system of segregation on Montgomery municipal buses leads to decision by local blacks to boycott.
 * Highlights of boycott:
 * role of E.D. Nixon, local black activist, in securing release of Parks from jail
 * efforts of WPC to organize one-day boycott, taking place, December 5
 * emergence of Martin Luther King Jr., twenty-five-year-old Montgomery minister, as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association and spokesman of the boycott
 * King's articulation of the nonviolent philosophy of protest as the ideology behind the boycott
 * use of mass meetings at local black churches as strategy and motivational sessions
 * decision to extend one-day boycott until city met basic demands of protestors
 * use of car pools and walking as ways of avoiding buses
 * rejection by city officials and representatives of bus company of demands for fairer treatment on buses
 * arrest of boycott leaders by city authorities and bombing of homes of some of the boycott leaders by white extremists
 * decision to sue the city for complete elimination of segregation on city buses
 * decision of federal district court, affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court, declaring segregation on municipal buses unconstitutional, December 1956//.//


 * Significance of boycott:
 * successful effort by 40,000 blacks in Montgomery against segregation on municipal buses reflected new attitude of protest by southern blacks
 * considered the beginning of the Modern Civil Rights Movement
 * saw the rise of Martin Luther King Jr. as national civil rights leader and spokesman of Modern Civil Rights Movement
 * led to similar protests by blacks in other Southern cities.

media type="youtube" key="V6aUVVUXGZc" height="349" width="560" Courtesy of Youtube

// Bibliography //

"ADAH: Alabama Moments (Montgomery Bus Boycott--Quick Summary)." //ADAH: Alabama Moments (Homepage)//. Web. 26 May 2011. < @http://www.alabamamoments.state.al.us/sec55qs.html >.

Most of the writing portion is from from the web titled Alabama Moments where it summarizes bus boycott. This web has many facts surrounding the boycott. //Video// "YouTube - ‪The Montgomery Bus Boycott‬‏." //YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.// Web. 31 May 2011. <[]>. The video is from the Youtube. I copied the video's url address and posted on the Wikispaces. The video tells about how bus boucoyy began after the arrest of Rosa Parks.

"The Montgomery Bus Boycott." //Gareth Stevens Publishing//. Web. 03 June 2011. . For the picture I used a website for Gareth Stevens Publishing. I used this picutre to show the bus boycott in Alabama.

 