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Rosa Parks

The recent passing of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas inspired and encouraged the black community to push forth with their dream of an equal nation.  Although laws had been amended, people knew that laws alone would not change their daily lives.  Something more radical would have to happen; actions would have to be taken in order to ensure that the laws were translated into reality. 

Rosa Parks refuses bus seat

On December 1, 1955, 41-year-old Rosa Parks boarded a Montgomery city bus, holding onto a bagful of groceries.  She settled into her seat ready to end a long of work as a tailor’s assistant.  As the bus started overflowing with people, three blacks and Parks were instructed to move to the back of the bus so that white people could occupy those seats.  While the other three blacks complied, Parks refused.  Unknowingly, this bold approach sparked a boycott which implemented a new way of transportation.

Parks was arrested for violating a segregation ordinance and taken to the station for booking. 

Although Parks’ occupation was only a tailor’s assistant, she was also a college-educated woman and secretary of the Montgomery branch of the NAACP.  Her refusal to comply with the ordinance awakened other blacks and thus, her intolerance of discrimination unintentionally initiated the Montgomery Bus Boycott

The Boycott Begins

News of Parks’ arrest quickly reached the Women’s Political Council (WPC).  A leaflet was immediately distributed announcing that a boycott wllying citizens against the oppression that they had endured for so long.

Normally, blacks accounted for 75% of the bus riders in Montgomery.  When the boycott was in effect, not more than a handful of blacks were seen riding buses, and as the boycott continued blacks altogether refused to ride buses.  They demanded more respectful treatment of blacks by bus drivers and hiring of black drivers.  For more than a year, blacks reached their destinations by foot while others rode in taxicabs owned by blacks.  (Drivers agreed to charge the same fee as buses during the boycott.)  Carpools were organized and other means of transportation was arranged by the black community to ensure a successful boycott.

Authorities Intervene

Authorities implemented different laws hoping to stop the boycott, but failed.  Police officers arrested car pool drivers, and white supremacists threatened and beat boycott participants.  Several black officials’ homes were bombed while numerous black citizens were arrested and put in prison due to involvement in the boycott.  Despite the hard conditions, 50,000 blacks continued onward with the boycott, even demanding that there be full desegregation of buses altogether.

Boycotters Find Victory

The issue of segregation via transportation was brought before the federal district court by NAACP attorney Fred Gray.  On June 4, 1956, the court ruled in favor of the blacks, stating that the segregation on public transportation systems was unconstitutional. 

Although the boy company appealed their case to the Supreme Court, they were forced to abandon the racial segregation policies. 

After the Boycott

382 days after the boycott had begun, just as quickly it was over.  The black community was overwhelmed with happiness, but for several weeks afterwards, blacks encountered dangerous and life-threatening attacks from those who wanted to maintain the segregation.  Buses were fired against, and even more homes were bombed, but after a few months, the attacks died down.  The Montgomery Bus Boycott sparked similar actions in several other cities in the south. 

Copyright, 2002, Betty Lee

 

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