B. The Montgomery Bus Boycott

1. Four days after the Brown decision, a civil rights activist, Jo Ann Robinson wrote a letter asking bus drivers to no longer force riders in the “colored” section of the bus to yield their seats to whites.

2. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks took a seat in the front row of the colored section of the bus.

3. The bus filled up and the driver asked her and three other African Americans to give up their seats, so a white man could sit down and not have to sit next to any blacks.

4. The driver said, “If you don’t stand up, I’m going to call the police and have you arrested.” In a calm, soft voice, Rosa Parks said, “You may do that.”

5. NAACP leaders were waiting for a moment to begin a bus boycott and Rosa’s stand was just the moment they needed.

6. She was found guilty and fined $10 plus $4 in court costs.

a. The Montgomery Improvement Association was formed to organize the boycott.

b. Boycott – an organized agreement not to buy or use a certain product or deal with a certain company, in order to exert pressure for change.

c. A 26-year-old pastor, named Martin Luther King, Jr., led the group and his passionate speeches inspired the community.

d. African Americans filed a lawsuit and for 381 days, blacks refused to ride the buses.

e. 40,000 out of 52,000 of the daily Montgomery bus passengers stayed away.

f. African American workers donated as much as 1/5 of their paychecks to support the boycott and they were also assisted by the NAACP, the United Auto Workers, and the Jewish community.

g. African American-owned taxis offered to take passengers for a ten-cent fare.

h. The city threatened the taxis for not charging the full 45-cent fare.

i. Then, churches bought and operated station wagons, called “rolling churches,” to pick up riders. The cars circled the same routes as the buses did.

j. The city refused to let them get the necessary insurance.

k. The churches had to go to Lloyd’s of London to get insured.

l. MLK and 88 other leaders were arrested and fined for conspiring to boycott.

7. The participants in the boycott remained non-violent despite a bombing of MLK’s home.

8. Finally in 1956, the Supreme Court outlawed bus segregation.