After Brown, the movement turned to the segregation of daily life. In Montgomery, Alabama, Black riders, most of the city's bus passengers, had to sit in the back and give up seats to white riders on demand.
Key idea
After Rosa Parks's arrest on December 1, 1955, Black residents of Montgomery boycotted the buses for 381 days, led by Martin Luther King Jr. In 1956 the courts ruled bus segregation unconstitutional (Browder v. Gayle).
Why it works
Parks was a respected seamstress and the secretary of the local NAACP; she had trained in organizing. When she refused to give up her seat, local leaders were ready. Jo Ann Robinson and the Women's Political Council had planned a boycott and printed tens of thousands of leaflets overnight. E. D. Nixon arranged bail. Ministers formed the Montgomery Improvement Association and chose a 26-year-old pastor, Martin Luther King Jr., as president. For more than a year, about 40,000 people walked, shared rides in a carpool system, or took church station wagons, while the bus company lost most of its riders. King's house was bombed, and leaders were arrested. A federal lawsuit by four other women, Browder v. Gayle, ended segregation on the buses: the Supreme Court affirmed on November 13, 1956, and the boycott ended on December 20.
Work it through
Worked example: Why did it work?
Name two reasons the Montgomery boycott succeeded.
- Economic pressure: Black riders were most of the bus company's customers, so the boycott cost it heavily.
- Organization: planning by the Women's Political Council, a carpool system and support from churches kept it going for 381 days.
- Law: the federal lawsuit gave the boycott a legal victory to end on.
Answer: Economic pressure, careful organization and a winning lawsuit.
Common mistake
Many students think the boycott was spontaneous, or that Parks was simply too tired to move. Local leaders and groups, including the Women's Political Council, had planned for such a protest and organized carpools to keep it going; Parks was an experienced activist. Others, such as 15-year-old Claudette Colvin earlier in 1955, had also refused to give up their seats.