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Montgomery Bus Boycott (December 1955 - December 1956)

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Montgomery Bus Boycott (December 1955 - December 1956)

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The Montgomery Bus Boycott happened just a couple months after the brutal murder of Emmett Till. This tragic incident was one of several motivating factors within Rosa Parks' decision of refusing to move from the seat she was in. She was fined and arrested four days prior to the start of the movement. Other African Americans saw what Rosa Parks did and began standing their ground, refusing to ride city busses. At the start of the movement, Montgomery required African Americans to only occupy the back of busses, whereas their White peers were allowed to freely sit at the front. The decision Rosa Parks' made shocked the nation, and aided in giving African Americans a voice. The U.S. Supreme Court later made the city integrate its' public transit system.

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Rosa Parks' Bus

In 1955, African Americans were still required by a Montgomery, Alabama, city ordinance to sit in the back half of city buses and to yield their seats to white riders if the front half of the bus, reserved for whites, was full.

But on December 1, 1955, African American seamstress Rosa Parks was commuting home on Montgomery's Cleveland Avenue bus from her job at a local department store. She was seated in the front row of the "colored section." When the white seats filled, the driver, J. Fred Blake, asked Parks and three others to vacate their seats. The other Black riders complied, but Parks refused.

She was arrested and fined $10, plus $4 in court fees. This was not Parks' first encounter with Blake. In 1943, she had paid her fare at the front of a bus he was driving, then exited so she could re-enter through the back door, as required. Blake pulled away before she could re-board the bus.

Did you know? Nine months before Rosa Parks' arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was arrested in Montgomery for the same act. The city's Black leaders prepared to protest, until it was discovered Colvin was pregnant and deemed an inappropriate symbol for their cause.

Although Parks has sometimes been depicted as a woman with no history of civil rights activism at the time of her arrest, she and her husband Raymond were, in fact, active in the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP), and Parks served as its secretary.

Upon her arrest, Parks called E.D. Nixon, a prominent Black leader, who bailed her out of jail and determined she would be an upstanding and sympathetic plaintiff in a legal challenge of the segregation ordinance. African American leaders decided to attack the ordinance using other tactics as well.

The Women's Political Council (WPC), a group of Black women working for civil rights, began circulating flyers calling for a boycott of the bus system on December 5, the day Parks would be tried in municipal court. The boycott was organized by WPC President Jo Ann Robinson.

Montgomery's African Americans Mobilize

As news of the boycott spread, African American leaders across Montgomery (Alabama's capital city) began lending their support. Black ministers announced the boycott in church on Sunday, December 4, and the Montgomery Advertiser, a general-interest newspaper, published a front-page article on the planned action.

Approximately 40,000 Black bus riders-the majority of the city's bus riders-boycotted the system the next day, December 5. That afternoon, Black leaders met to form the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). The group elected Martin Luther King Jr., the 26-year-old-pastor of Montgomery's Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, as its president, and decided to continue the boycott until the city met its demands.

Initially, the demands did not include changing the segregation laws; rather, the group demanded courtesy, the hiring of Black drivers, and a first-come, first-seated policy, with whites entering and filling seats from the front and African Americans from the rear.

Ultimately, however, a group of five Montgomery women, represented by attorney Fred D. Gray and the NAACP, sued the city in U.S. District Court, seeking to have the busing segregation laws totally invalidated.

Although African Americans represented at least 75 percent of Montgomery's bus ridership, the city resisted complying with the protester's demands. To ensure the boycott could be sustained, Black leaders organized carpools, and the city's African American taxi drivers charged only 10 cents-the same price as bus fare-for African American riders.

Many Black residents chose simply to walk to work or other destinations. Black leaders organized regular mass meetings to keep African American residents mobilized around the boycott.

Integration at Last

On June 5, 1956, a Montgomery federal court ruled that any law requiring racially segregated seating on buses violated the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That amendment, adopted in 1868 following the U.S. Civil War, guarantees all citizens-regardless of race-equal rights and equal protection under state and federal laws.

The city appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the lower court's decision on December 20, 1956. Montgomery's buses were integrated on December 21, 1956, and the boycott ended. It had lasted 381 days.

Bus Boycott Meets With Violence

Integration, however, met with significant resistance and even violence. While the buses themselves were integrated, Montgomery maintained segregated bus stops. Snipers began firing into buses, and one shooter shattered both legs of a pregnant African American passenger.

In January 1957, four Black churches and the homes of prominent Black leaders were bombed; a bomb at King's house was defused. On January 30, 1957, the Montgomery police arrested seven bombers; all were members of the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group. The arrests largely brought an end to the busing-related violence.

Boycott Puts Martin Luther King Jr. in Spotlight

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was significant on several fronts. First, it is widely regarded as the earliest mass protest on behalf of civil rights in the United States, setting the stage for additional large-scale actions outside the court system to bring about fair treatment for African Americans.

Second, in his leadership of the MIA, Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as a prominent national leader of the civil rights movement while also solidifying his commitment to nonviolent resistance. King's approach remained a hallmark of the civil rights movement throughout the 1960s.

Shortly after the boycott's end, he helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a highly influential civil rights organization that worked to end segregation throughout the South. The SCLC was instrumental in the civil rights campaign in Birmingham, Alabama, in the spring of 1963, and the March on Washington in August of that same year, during which King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

The boycott also brought national and international attention to the civil rights struggles occurring in the United States, as more than 100 reporters visited Montgomery during the boycott to profile the effort and its leaders.

Rosa Parks, while shying from the spotlight throughout her life, remained an esteemed figure in the history of American civil rights activism. In 1999, the U.S. Congress awarded her its highest honor, the Congressional Gold Medal.

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Montgomery Bus Boycott - Facts, Significance & Rosa Parks | HISTORY

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For 382 days, almost the entire African American population of Montgomery, Alabama, including leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, refused to ride on segregated buses. The protests marked a turning point in the American civil rights movement.

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Proposal of The Civil Rights Act of 1963 (June 1963)

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Proposal of The Civil Rights Act of 1963 (June 1963)

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In his third year in office, John F. Kennedy witnessed turmoil throughout his country, but more specifically in the south. When the severity of incidents was revealed to him, Kennedy did everything in his power to show how dedicated he was to mending standing issues. In June of 1963, Kennedy went on national television to broadcast his proposal of a Civil Rights Act, that would integrate the nation. He called to congress to sign and support his proposal, in hope to help those fighting what seemed to be an endless war. Kennedy was running for re-election, and had a strong campaign, but was assassinated in November of 1963, prior to signing the Civil Rights Act he had proposed months earlier. In 1964, this Act was signed outlawing racially motivated segregation in public.

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On June 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy gave a televised address to the American people and announced that he would be sending a civil rights bill to Congress. His bill would become the most-far reaching act of legislation supporting racial equality in American history. Beginning in the 1950s, African Americans had been engaged in peaceful demonstrations to protest segregation and discrimination, but had encountered violence and resistance. The turmoil through the South prompted the president to take action. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed racial segregation in public accommodations including hotels, restaurants, theaters, and stores, and made employment discrimination illegal. President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill on July 2, 1964. This exhibit summarizes some of the historical events that influenced the passage of this legislation.

The Civil Rights Movement

The catalyst that ignited the modern Civil Rights Movement was the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. When Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, the black community organized a boycott of the city buses. After 13 months, the U.S. Supreme Court held that Alabama's laws segregating buses were unconstitutional, and the boycott ended in success. During the Montgomery boycott, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. rose to prominence, and in 1956 the Southern Christian Leadership Council was created to coordinate and support non-violent protests against segregation and discrimination.

U.S. Supreme Court held that Alabama's laws segregating buses were unconstitutional

The Civil Rights Movement was a grassroots effort, that took root as African American citizens decided to speak up, walk out, or engage in civil disobedience to bring attention to the racial injustices that permeated Southern society. In February 1960, students in Greensboro, North Carolina, began the sit-in movement, when they refused to leave a segregated lunch counter at a Woolworth's store. Their actions set off a wave of sit-ins and other non-violent protests against segregation. Later that year, students founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee as an outlet for younger African Americans who wanted to take part in the movement. In 1961, the Freedom Riders risked their lives trying to desegregate interstate travel facilities, such as bus stations across the South. Beginning their rides in Washington, D.C., the riders were arrested in Charlotte, North Carolina, and they encountered increasing resistance as they traveled deeper into the South. In Alabama and Mississippi, the riders were beaten and arrested. The next year, violent vigilantes rioted in Oxford, Mississippi, as James Meredith, by order of the U.S. courts, enrolled in the traditionally white University of Mississippi.

The Kennedy Administration

Although John F. Kennedy's administration responded to civil rights protests that turned violent, such as sending federal troops to the University of Mississippi campus to quell the riots, it had been criticized for not doing enough to support African Americans fighting for social and economic equality. President Kennedy wanted to wait until his second term to send a civil rights bill to Congress, but events conspired to constrict his timetable.

On the occasion of Vanderbilt University's 90th anniversary, President John Kennedy stressed the responsibility of educated men and women to use their talents to help society. Photo courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

By the spring of 1963, simultaneous protests were taking place throughout the South, but the one attracting national and international attention occurred in Birmingham, Alabama. The city's black community decided to follow a strategy used in Albany, Georgia, protesting discriminatory practices with mass marches and filling up the city's jails. Birmingham's Police Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor, a hard-line segregationist, responded to the peaceful protests with police force. President Kennedy was spurred into action as the Birmingham protests escalated. As photographs of police dogs attacking peaceful marchers and fire hoses being turned on children flashed across the country and around the globe, the Kennedy administration responded. In May 1963, the administration sent Burke Marshall, an official from the Justice Department, down to Birmingham, and he negotiated a short-lived agreement between business leaders and civil rights activists.

That same month, on May 18, 1963, President Kennedy delivered a speech at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, in which he mentioned the movement and the struggle for equal rights. He referred to the complexity of the problem and the importance of assuring all Americans their rights under the law.

Then on May 21, federal courts ordered the University of Alabama to admit two African American students, Vivian J. Malone and James A. Hood, for the summer session beginning in June. The governor of Alabama, George Wallace, was an avowed segregationist. In his inaugural address in January 1963, Wallace "drew a line in the dust and toss[ed] the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny," declaring "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." He pledged to block the entrance and prevent the university's desegregation.
Read Wallace's full Inaugural Address from the Alabama Department of Archives and History Digital Collections.
President Kennedy warned Governor Wallace against stopping the integration of the university, but on June 11, 1963, Governor Wallace stood in front of a university building to bar Malone's and Hood's entrance. Governor Wallace and U.S. Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach engaged in a standoff, captured on camera, and President Kennedy mobilized the Alabama National Guard to protect the students and resolve the situation. Malone and Hood ultimately entered the building and registered for classes.

Governor George Wallace ( second from left) blocked U.S. Deputy Attorney General, Nicholas Katzenbach, from entering the University of Alabama. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

That night President Kennedy took to the air waves, speaking forcefully about civil rights. He announced his intention to ask Congress to act, declaring that a moral crisis existed in the country and requesting Congress to move forward with legislation to desegregate public accommodations and speed up the integration of public education.

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It [this nation] was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.

On June 19, President Kennedy sent his civil rights bill to Congress.

As the bill began to slowly make its way through Congress, civil rights leaders proposed maintaining the momentum by reviving an idea from the 1940s. In 1941, A. Philip Randolph and associates had proposed a march on Washington to protest racial discrimination in the war industries. The march never came to fruition because President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order that prohibited discrimination in national defense industries.
Read President Roosevelt's Executive Order 8802 at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.

Martin Luther King Jr gave his famous I Have a Dream Speech at the Lincoln Memorial, where more than 250,000 people gathered for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in August 1963. Source: National Archives

In 1963, civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King, Jr., Roy Wilkins, and James Farmer decided to revive Randolph's original idea. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place on August 28, 1963, when more than 250,000 demonstrators gathered in Washington, D.C., in support of job creation and civil rights legislation.

Following the peaceful March on Washington, which featured King's "I Have a Dream" speech, President Kennedy met with civil rights leaders at the White House. They discussed the event and the details of the civil right legislation moving through Congress. Roy Wilkins stressed their desire to have fair employment practices included in the civil rights package. They also stressed the importance of training and education.

President Kennedy meets with civil rights leaders in the White House. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

The Johnson Administration

Then on November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a Dallas motorcade. On becoming president, Lyndon Johnson took up the mantle of civil rights. In addressing a joint session of Congress five days after the assassination, President Johnson announced his intention to continue to pursue the passage of civil rights legislation as a tribute to President Kennedy.

Using his leadership to lobby key senators, President Johnson forged a bipartisan coalition of northern and border-state Democrats and moderate Republicans. These Senators were able to offset a coalition of southern Democrats and right-wing Republicans, including an 82-day filibuster, and the bill passed in the Senate by a vote of 73 to 27 on June 19, 1964.

President Lyndon Johnson recorded many of his telephone conversations during his time in office. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

That day, President Johnson called NAACP president, Roy Wilkins, to discuss the Senate's passage of the bill. After sharing congratulations, the president asked Wilkins for his ideas about the statement Johnson would make during the signing ceremony. The two men talked about strategy for implementing the legislation, as well as how to handle southern governors and how to enforce the law in the old Confederacy.

Two days later, President Johnson called House Minority Leader, Republican Charles Halleck of Indiana, to discuss bringing the bill up for a vote in the House. Johnson urged Halleck to pass the civil rights legislation, as well as his anti-poverty bill. Alternatively cajoling and joking with Halleck, Johnson made it clear that he planned to sign the act before the July 4th congressional recess.

On July 2, 1964, a few hours after the House passed the bill, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in a televised White House ceremony. In his remarks, he noted the historic nature of the legislation and outlined his plan to implement the law. At the conclusion of his statement, he signed the bill using a number of different pens, which he then passed out to the bill's supporters, including President Kennedy's brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

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We believe that all men have certain unalienable rights. Yet many Americans do not enjoy those rights.

Hear the full-length televised address.

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The Civil Rights Act of 1964 | Miller Center

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On June 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy gave a televised address to the American people and announced that he would be sending a civil rights bill to Congress. His bill would become the most-far reaching act of legislation supporting racial equality in American history.

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In August of 1963, over 250,000 people met in Washington D.C. to protest and march for freedom and jobs. After several attacks on African Americans in Alabama, two groups intending to protest different issues gathered together and joined one another in a single, organized, protest. At this march, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his infamous "I Have a Dream" speech, which was heard around the world. President John F. Kennedy was concerned that this protest would incite more violence with it originally taking place at the Capitol. He ended up endorsing it in the end after those protesting decided to meet at the Lincoln Memorial instead.

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March on Washington - Date, Facts & Significance | HISTORY

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The March on Washington was a massive protest march that occurred in August 1963, when some 250,000 people gathered i…

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Over 600 activists and protesters were met with violence during their march from Selma, AL to Montgomery, AL. Voting rights were being protested along with a recent murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson. Jackson was killed by police officers just before this march during a peaceful protest. John Lewis, who recently passed, led this march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge where they were then met by police who attacked them after they refused to turn around. Media outlets covered the attack, broadcasting gruesome images on television screens nationwide. Following this attack, another march was set to occur a few days later, and Martin Luther King Jr. called out for others to join in solidarity. These events eventually aided in passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

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On March 7, 1965, state and local police used billy clubs, whips, and tear gas to attack hundreds of civil rights activists beginning a march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capitol in Montgomery. The activists were protesting the denial of voting rights to African Americans as well as the murder of 26-year-old activist Jimmie Lee Jackson, who had been fatally shot in the stomach by police during a peaceful protest just days before.

The march was led by John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Reverend Hosea Williams of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge and found themselves facing a line of state and county officers poised to attack. When demonstrators did not promptly obey the officers' order to disband and turn back, troopers brutally attacked them on horseback, wielding weapons and chasing down fleeing men, women, and children. Dozens of civil rights activists were later hospitalized with severe injuries.

Horrifying images of the violence were broadcast on national television, shocking many viewers and helping to rouse support for the civil rights cause. Activists organized another march two days later, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. urged supporters from throughout the country to come to Selma to join. Many heeded his call, and the events helped spur passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 three months later.

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Mar. 7, 1965 | Alabama Law Enforcement Attacked Civil Rights Activists on 'Bloody Sunday' in Selma

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On March 7, 1965, state and local police used billy clubs, whips, and tear gas to attack hundreds of civil rights activists beginning a march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capitol in Montgomery.

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination (April 1968)

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination (April 1968)

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On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis Tennessee. Dr. King had previously survived an assassination attempt in the late 50's, what which only solidified his ideas and thoughts. In the last years in his life, he faced heavy criticism from the supporters of Malcom X, who was much more confrontational in his approach than King was. Malcom X had been assassinated in 1965 and called King "criminal" for "repressing" African Americans with his ideas of nonviolence. The night before his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech where he outlined that he wanted his supporters to continue to fight for justice, even if he may not be there with him. Following the assassination, that speech gained heavy attention, as many thought King knew that he may be killed for what he believes in. James Earl Ray, a criminal who had previously served in the United States Army, was the man who killed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that night on the motel balcony.

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Table of Contents

1. King Assassination: Background

2. Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

3. King Assassination Conspiracy

4. Impact of the King Assassination

Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, an event that sent shock waves reverberating around the world. A Baptist minister and founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), King had led the civil rights movement since the mid-1950s, using a combination of impassioned speeches and nonviolent protests to fight segregation and achieve significant civil rights advances for African Americans. His assassination led to an outpouring of anger among Black Americans, as well as a period of national mourning that helped speed the way for an equal housing bill that would be the last significant legislative achievement of the civil rights era.

King Assassination: Background

In the last years of his life, Dr. King faced mounting criticism from young African American activists who favored a more confrontational approach to seeking change. These young radicals stuck closer to the ideals of the Black nationalist leader Malcolm X ( himself assassinated in 1965), who had condemned King's advocacy of nonviolence as "criminal" in the face of the continuing repression suffered by African Americans.

As a result of this opposition, King sought to widen his appeal beyond his own race, speaking out publicly against the Vietnam War and working to form a coalition of poor Americans-Black and white alike-to address such issues as poverty and unemployment.

Did you know? Among the witnesses at King's assassination was Jesse Jackson, one of his closest aides. Ordained as a minister soon after King's death, Jackson went on to form Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) and to run twice for U.S. president, in 1984 and 1988.

In the spring of 1968, while preparing for a planned march to Washington to lobby Congress on behalf of the poor, King and other SCLC members were called to Memphis, Tennessee, to support a sanitation workers' strike. On the night of April 3, King gave a speech at the Mason Temple Church in Memphis.

In his speech, King seemed to foreshadow his own untimely passing, or at least to strike a particularly reflective note, ending with these now-historic words: "I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

In fact, King had already survived an assassination attempt in the shoe section of a Harlem department store on September 20, 1958. The incident only affirmed his belief in non-violence.

Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

At 6:05 p.m. the following day, King was standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where he and his associates were staying, when a sniper's bullet struck him in the neck. He was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later, at the age of 39.

Shock and distress over the news of King's death sparked rioting in more than 100 cities around the country, including burning and looting. Amid a wave of national mourning, President Lyndon B. Johnson urged Americans to "reject the blind violence" that had killed King, whom he called the "apostle of nonviolence."

He also called on Congress to speedily pass the civil rights legislation then entering the House of Representatives for debate, calling it a fitting legacy to King and his life's work. On April 11, Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act, a major piece of civil rights legislation that prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin or sex. It is considered an important follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

King Assassination Conspiracy

On June 8, authorities apprehended the suspect in King's murder, a small-time criminal named James Earl Ray, at London's Heathrow Airport. Witnesses had seen him running from a boarding house near the Lorraine Motel carrying a bundle; prosecutors said he fired the fatal bullet from a bathroom in that building. Authorities found Ray's fingerprints on the rifle used to kill King, a scope and a pair of binoculars.

On March 10, 1969, Ray pleaded guilty to King's murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. No testimony was heard in his trial. Shortly afterwards, however, Ray recanted his confession, claiming he was the victim of a conspiracy. The House Select Committee on Assassinations (who also investigated the assassination of JFK) maintained that Ray's shot killed king.

Ray later found sympathy in an unlikely place: Members of King's family, including his son Dexter, who publicly met with Ray in 1977 and began arguing for a reopening of his case. Though the U.S. government conducted several investigations into the trial-each time confirming Ray's guilt as the sole assassin-controversy still surrounds the assassination.

At the time of Ray's death in 1998, King's widow Coretta Scott King (who in the weeks after her husband's death had courageously continued the campaign to aid the striking Memphis sanitation workers and carried on his mission of social change through nonviolent means) publicly lamented that "America will never have the benefit of Mr. Ray's trial, which would have produced new revelations about the assassination...as well as establish the facts concerning Mr. Ray's innocence."

Impact of the King Assassination

Though Black and white people alike mourned King's passing, the killing in some ways served to widen the rift between Black and white Americans, as many Black people saw King's assassination as a rejection of their vigorous pursuit of equality through the nonviolent resistance he had championed.

His murder, like the killing of Malcolm X in 1965, radicalized many moderate African American activists, fueling the growth of the Black Power movement and the Black Panther Party in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

King has remained the most widely known African American leader of his era, and the most public face of the civil rights movement, along with its most eloquent voice.

A campaign to establish a national holiday in his honor began almost immediately after his death, and its proponents overcame significant opposition-critics pointed to FBI surveillance files suggesting King's adultery and his influence by Communists-before President Ronald Reagan signed the King holiday bill into law in 1983.

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Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination - Facts, Reaction & Impact | HISTORY

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Baptist minister and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. His murder led to an outpouring of anger among Black Americans, as well as a period of national mourning that helped speed the way for lasting civil rights legislation.