Masaryk University

Faculty of Education

Department of English Language and Literature

The Bus Boycott in Montgomery

Bachelor Thesis

Brno 2013

Supervisor: Author:

Michael George, M.A. Kristýna Beníčková

2

I proclaim that this bachelor thesis is my individual work and that I used

only the sources cited in the bibliography.

Brno, April 2013 Kristýna Beníčková

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I would like to express my profound gratitude to my supervisor

Mr. Michael George, A.M. for his valuable advice, motivation, providing

me with essential materials and also for his very kind approach.

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Annotation

This thesis deals with a one year long struggle for black equality which took place in

Montgomery during the years 1955 to 1956. Through boycotting public bus

transportation the black citizens intended to change the seating system. But finally the

results had bigger dimension. Not only the segregation on buses was abolished but also

it inspired many other civil rights movements which followed shortly. The Montgomery

movement introduced important personalities and freedom fighters such as Martin

Luther King, Jr. to the world as well. The aim of this work is to describe the boycott as a

great example of people´s unity and determination and to point out the significance of

the movement to American history and to the present day.

Key words:

Segregation, equality, race, the Black, Rosa Parks, public transportation, Montgomery,

boycott, Martin Luther King, NAACP, non-violence

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Content

Content…………………………………………………………………........5

Introduction…………………………………………………………………7

1. Background……………………………………………………………….8

1.1 Jim Crow era……………………………………………………...8

1.2 Montgomery before the boycott………………………………….9

1.3 Personalities……………………………………………………...10

1.3.1 Rosa Parks……………………………………………...11

1.3.2 Martin Luther King, Jr………………………………….11

2. Rosa Parks´ refusal………………………………………………………13

2.1 What preceded the refusal………………………………………..13

2.2 The denial………………………………………………………....15

2.3 The arrest………………………………………………………….18

2.4 Reactions………………………………………………………….19

3. The bus boycott in Montgomery…………………………………………21

3.1 Preparations……………………………………………………….21

3.2 December 5………………………………………………………..25

3.2.1 Empty buses……………………………………………..25

3.2.2 Rosa Parks´ trial…………………………………………26

3.2.3 Preparing the meeting…………………………………...26

3.2.4 The mass meeting………………………………………..29

3.3 The boycott continues……………………………………………..32

3.3.1 Next steps………………………………………………..32

3.3.2 Looking for a solution…………………………………...35

3.3.3 Growing impact………………………………………….36

3.3.4 Hard times……………………………………………….37

3.3.5 King´s first arrest………………………………………...39

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3.3.6 Bomb……………………………………………………40

3.3.7 Non-violence……………………………………………42

3.3.8 Massive arrest…………………………………………...43

3.4 Final decision……………………………………………………...46

3.4.1 Browder v. Gayle case…………………………………..46

3.4.2 The last attempt of the city……………………………...46

3.4.3 Victory…………………………………………………..47

3.4.4 Integrated buses…………………………………………48

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………....50

Bibliography………………………………………………………………….52

Books………………………………………………………………….52

Other sources..………………………………………………………...53

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Introduction

It is surprising that in the second half of 20th

century, when the majority of the world

took their freedom as granted, the life conditions of African-Americans in the United

States of America could not be compared to the conditions the white citizens lived

under. The history of the country often presented as an example of democracy, civil

rights and opportunities has also its dark sides, one of which is the problematic

acceptance of different races by the white majority.

This thesis describes one event, which is often considered to be a turning point in

breaking the whites´ supremacy and integration of the Black. The boycott in

Montgomery showed that there is no use in passive acceptance but people must stick

together and act to improve their situation. Also it was important to use a good method

in reaching their aims, which was the method of nonviolence. It must have been very

hard not to pay back in the same way when having been beaten, kicked or spit on. But

the Montgomery movement proved that it is possible to manage.

In the first part of this paper, the background information is provided, including brief

description of the social status of an average black person in the South and of the city of

Montgomery and its citizens. The second part attempts to explain how the whole protest

started and what had lead to it. It deals with Rosa Parks´ refusal on the bus and

following decision to use the incident in favor of the planned protest. The third and the

fourth part are about the boycott itself. First months of the protest were more difficult

and therefore full of incidents and reversals. The second half of the boycott was more or

less about waiting for the final decision of the court which showed that the whole

struggle did not happen in vain.

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1. Background

1.1 Jim Crow era

Originally the African people (later called African-Americans) were brought to the

United States as slaves during the period from the 17th

to the 19th

century. After the

Civil War, the slavery was abolished by ratifying the Thirteenth Amendment on

December 6, 1865. For a while blacks had some hope to have the same rights and life

conditions as whites. But even though their social status had changed according to the

law, it did not change in the eyes of the white majority. The hope for equal treatment

disappeared with the Jim Crow era.

The term ´´Jim Crow´´ was firstly used in the 1890´ in some writings, but its origin is

unknown. Probably it has the roots in a song of the same name by Thomas D. Rice from

1832. During the following few years the term had become an adjective and started to

be widely used to signify southern segregation laws and the whole period. (Woodward

7)

The era between years 1890 to 1960s was marked by ´´separate but equal´´ rules. In all

public places, including schools, hospitals, restaurants, theatres, public transportation

and so on, any contact between blacks and whites was to be avoided. Also interracial

marriages were prohibited by law. Life was not easy for blacks, they had to face

humiliation every day and sometimes even violence such as beating or lynching.

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1.2 Montgomery before the boycott

In the state of Alabama, the segregation laws related to public transportation were

strictly followed. One of the rules for example ordered: ´´All passenger stations in this

state operated by any motor transportation company shall have separate waiting rooms

or space and separate ticket windows for the white and colored races.´´

(http://publicradio.org) Another one said: ´´All railroads carrying passengers in this

state, other than street railroads, shall provide equal but separate accommodations for

the white and colored races by providing two or more passenger cars for each passenger

train, or by dividing the passenger cars by partitions, so as to secure separate

accommodation.´´ (www.pbs.org)

There was a huge difference between life conditions of an average black and white

person in the South. Because of unequal treatment and opportunity, only 25 percent of

white working men were working as laborers, compared to 75 percent of black men.

The median income of a white citizen of Montgomery at the beginning of the 1950s was

about 1730 dollars. A black worker had 970. (Kennedy 1009)

The city of Montgomery was a typical southern city, where segregation was a part of

everyday life. The two societies were separated on every public place. Schools were

separated and no change occurred after the United States Supreme Court decision in

1954 which said that schools can be integrated. It was customary that in shops all white

people were served before a black man who had to wait. Also they usually were not

addressed with polite titles. There was separation in public transportation containing

also taxis which could not hold a black and white men together. (King 28)

The segregation of two races on buses was realized as follows:

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´´…white people who boarded the bus took seats in the front rows,

filling the bus toward the back. Black people who boarded the bus

took seats in the back rows, filling the bus toward the front.

Eventually, the two sections would meet, and the bus would be full. If

other black people boarded the bus, they were required to stand. If

another white person boarded the bus, then everyone in the black row

nearest the front had to get up and stand, so that a new row for white

people could be created. Often when boarding the buses, black people

were required to pay at the front, get off, and reenter the bus through a

separate door at the back.´´ (www.absoluteastronomy.com)

The number of black citizens in Montgomery in the year 1954 was about fifty thousand,

compared to the number of eighty thousand whites. (Bennett 55) Since the black people

using the city buses made about 75 percent of all passengers and because they were

using the buses every day, in their eyes the segregation there was the most humiliating.

Twice a day the black passengers had to face rudeness of white drivers and were

watching empty seats reserved for whites while they were standing at the crowded back

of a bus. Situations in which the Black were called ´´niggers´´, ´´black cows´´ or in

which a driver pulled away before a black passenger, who had paid in front, managed to

get on the bus through a back door, were not rare. (Harding 41)

1.3 Personalities

Before the bus boycott there were some organizations in Montgomery fighting for equal

rights of the Black. The most important were Women´s Political Council (WPC), lead

by Jo Ann Robinson, and local part of the National Association for the Advancement of

Colored People (NAACP), connected mostly to Edgar Daniel Nixon. Apart from these

cooperating organizations and its members, there were also individuals without whom

the whole protest might not have succeed. One of them was Mrs. Rosa Parks, whose

involvement started the movement.

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1.3.1 Rosa Parks

Rosa Louise McCauley was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her

father was a carpenter, mother was teaching at local school. Rosa attended Montgomery

Industrial School for girls and then graduated at Alabama State College for Negroes. IN

1932 she married Raymond Parks. For 23 years Rosa Parks was working as a clerk and

a department store seamstress and meanwhile she was active in NAACP as a secretary.

(Nash 240)

Her first realization of the social status of the Black in the South and white supremacy

came early. Ku Klux Klan, the racist organization, had been threatening black people to

attack their families or burn their houses, which sometimes really happened. Rosa

Parks´ grandfather was preparing the whole family for such situation so she knew about

possible danger since she was a child. (nytimes.com)

Since she was living in Montgomery and working for the local NAACP in her free time,

she was familiar with the attempts to improve the conditions of blacks in the city. But

she had not intended to be involved in the movement the way she was.

The boycott changed her life completely. For the Black she was a hero and later

received many prizes. But shortly after the protest both she and her husband lost their

jobs and together they moved to Detroit, Michigan where she lived till the end of her

life in 2005. (www.biography.com)

1.3.2 Martin Luther King, Jr.

On 15 January 1929 Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia. After a

mother of his white friend forbade him to play with her son because of the different

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color of his skin, he began to realize the situation of ´´his´´ people. But he never forgot

what his parents kept telling him about the equality of all human beings. (McLean 3-4)

He studied Morehouse College in Atlanta and then entered Crozer Theological

Seminary in Pennsylvania and then Boston University´s School of Theology to follow

his father and become a preacher. In Boston he met his future wife Coretta Scott.

Although they both were determined to live in the North, in 1954 they finally decided to

move to Montgomery, where Martin Luther was offered to serve as pastor of the Dexter

Avenue Baptist Church. (Sitkoff 42-43)

During the bus boycott, Martin Luther King became known all over the world. His

emotional speeches and propagation of nonviolent method had power to move masses

of people. Since the boycott in Montgomery King had started a lifelong struggle for

black equality. He was leading many other movements and became a symbol. As one

his close friends, Andrew Young, said: ´´I think that Martin always felt that he had a

special purpose in life and that that purpose in life was something that was given to him

by God, that he was the son and grandson of Baptist preachers, and he understood, I

think, the scriptural notion of men of destiny. That came from his family and his church,

and basically the Bible.´´ (qtd. in Garrow 1987, p. 444)

For his struggle in improving the status of black Americans, Martin Luther King was

awarded the Nobel prize at the age of thirty-five. In April 1968 he was assassinated in

Memphis, where he was leading another protest. (www.nobelprize.org)

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2. Rosa Parks´ refusal

2.1 What preceded the refusal

The numerous black population of Montgomery was not passively watching

the situation they were in. Some smaller incidents as expressions of disagreement with

segregation laws were quite common, but it was mostly in hands of a few people.

One of the most active ones was E.D. Nixon. Although he did not commute by buses

because of having his own car, he tried to do his best to improve the conditions of

public transportation for the whole black community. Once he went to the bus company

to complain about the order which dictated that black people had to pay their fare at the

bus driver and then got back and enter the bus through the back door. Their response

was that black people were doing that voluntarily and it had been originally their own

idea. Next time Nixon protested at the company about the small community having to

walk quite a long way across the bridge in order to get to the bus stop, but the reaction

of the company was not better: When the people come to the bus stop every day and

ride the buses anyway, why would the company exert to extend the route of the bus?

(Parks 211)

Jo Ann G. Robinson, the leader of the Women´ Political Council, founded in 1946, also

had little success in improving the conditions of everyday life of the black. She tried to

change the attitude of the bus company toward black citizens of Montgomery. Through

protests she made the company add some bus stops in black areas, because they were

not so frequent as in the areas where white people lived. (Parks 211-212)

The idea of a bus boycott was talked over for a long time. As E.D. Nixon, the leader of

African-Americans civil rights movements, said, they had been looking for someone

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who would have started a boycott by violating the bus segregation law for about a year.

He knew thanks to his experience in NAACP and other associations that it could not

have been anyone, but a person with good social status and nothing which could have

been used against him at the court. (Raines 305)

Rosa Parks wrote in her book that she had been aware of the fact, how a bus boycott

would have bad impact on economic situation of the bus company in Montgomery. But

she had discussed the matter with some people and everyone was skeptical about the

idea because people were dependent on the bus so as to get to work which was usually a

long way from their homes. The NAACP in Montgomery was therefore thinking over

the idea of suing the city of Montgomery for bus segregation. To have a chance there

had to be a good case and a person who would not arouse doubts, preferably a woman.

(Parks 212)

There were some candidates for it. One of them was a fifteen-year-old school girl

Claudette Colvin who was arrested in March 1955 for refusing to give up her seat to a

white passenger. A teacher of hers was often talking about the bad treatment of white

people toward the black. She was also upset when she heard about a black student

accused of raping a white woman. She was arrested and Mr. Nixon was again

considering whether her case could be the right one. Unfortunately he found out that

Claudette was from a poor family and when the police were taking her she was

aggressive. Moreover, it was later discovered that she was also pregnant at the time,

which would have destroyed her reputation and the whole attempt of the civil rights

activists. (Branch 123)

Then there was another young girl in October 1955, named Mary Louise Smith. She

refused to give up her seat to a white woman on the Highland Avenue bus. She was

arrested and found guilty. The bond was nine dollars. It was thought that this might

have been the appropriate case, which was however disproved after finding out that her

father was an alcoholic and her family background was not the ideal one.

(http://www.colorado.edu)

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Because of these former attempts there have been some surmises that Rosa Parks´

refusal and the decisive arrest had been a planned action. This was however denied by

everybody connected to this case, including Rosa Parks herself. She wrote later that for

her the denial was nothing so much rare because she had had problems with accepting

the separation laws, especially in public transportation, for a long time. She had been

ordered out of a bus more than once because of refusing to pay the money at the front

and then go to the back of a bus from the outside. But on 1st December 1955 it was the

first time she was arrested, which gave the case all the publicity. (Raines 306-307)

2.2 The denial

On that day, 1st December 1955, Mrs. Parks left her work in the Fair department store,

where she worked in a tailor shop, and went to buy something to a drugstore so she was

not going to the bus stop immediately as usual. After that she came to Court Square and

got on a Cleveland Avenue bus with other people. (Raines 307)

In her book Mrs. Parks wrote that if she had been more attentive, she may have not

entered the bus, because of the driver, whose name was, as she learnt later at the court,

James Blake. She had not noticed it was the same man whom she had met twelve years

earlier when he ordered her out of his bus. Usually when she saw him she tried to avoid

him and caught another bus. She described him as a tall man with mean expression and

red skin. (Parks 212)

It was not easy to find a seat at that day hour and there had already been some people

standing at the back of the bus. Lerone Bennett, an author of Martin Luther King´s

biography wrote there were another twenty-three black passengers with Rosa Parks on

the bus and twelve whites. (Bennett 59) But the exact number of passengers on the bus

16

differ. Taylor Branch introduced the number of twenty-two black and fourteen white

people. (http://www.colorado.edu)

But accidentally there was one vacant seat precisely behind the section for white

passengers. So she sat down there. Next to her there was a black man and two women

across the aisle. When the bus started to move, there were still some vacancies in the

white section. This however changed as the bus was getting more and more crowded at

the second and the third stop, but Rosa Parks did not pay much attention to that. There

were no vacant seats at the front after Empire Theater bus stop and one man remained

standing. When the driver noticed that, he told Mrs. Parks and other three people in the

same line to vacate the seats for the standing man and other white passengers who

would get on. (Raines 307)

None of them obeyed. He continued: ´´You´d better make it light on yourselves and let

me have those seats.´´ (qtd. in Raines 1977: p. 307) After it the man who was sitting

next to Mrs. Parks stood up and she made him enough space to get pass her into the

aisle and then she moved at his former place by the window. She saw the two women

standing up as well, but remained where she was, thinking about the behavior of whites

which would become worse and worse if blacks would submit all the time. She later

wrote that it came to her mind, how would have the situation looked like in case the

other three blacks had remained seated as well. She would have naturally felt better but

she never felt any reproach toward them. (Parks 213)

The driver insisted on her doing as he had said but he failed again. He explained her that

she was actually sitting in the white section. Normally it was so called no-man´s land,

but in case the white section was full, the driver had the right to determine it to be for

whites only. (http://www.colorado.edu)

Then he threatened her that if she was not to do as she had been told, he was going to

call the police. Mrs. Parks spurred him on doing so. All this was observed by the

17

standing man because of whom everything had happened and who according to Rosa

Parks did not say a word. (Raines 308)

There have been many speculations why Rosa Parks, a good-tempered woman with

glasses, was so indomitable. Because of her close connection to NAACP, the most

spread idea was that she was only a tool of the association, someone on whom it could

test the segregation law at the court and possibly reach some success. When people later

asked Mrs. Parks whether she had realized that there would probably be speculations

about her being the test case for NAACP, she said that idea did not come to her mind at

all. (Parks 213)

Another spread idea was that she was simply tired after a long day standing at her work.

In Bennett´s book there is a mention of Mrs. Parks´ proclamation that she was tired

from shopping and her feet hurt. (Bennett 60). However, later Rosa Parks wrote: ´´I was

not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I

was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-

two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.´´ (qtd. in Parks 213). Martin

Luther King wrote that she had been tracked down by the Zeitgeist – the spirit of the

time. (King 44)

After her refusal the bus driver left the bus. Rosa Parks described that she was sitting

there and tried not to think much about the consequences. But she realized deeply in her

head that she might be arrested or even beaten. Some people started to get off the bus in

order to look for another way how to get home. There was silence in the bus, everyone

was speaking very quietly. (Parks 213)

After a while there came two police officers and made their way toward Mrs. Parks. She

described the situation: ´´They approached me and asked if the driver had asked me to

stand up, and I said yes, and they wanted to know why I didn´t. I told them I didn´t

think I should have to stand up. After I had paid my fare and occupied the seat, I didn´t

18

think I should have to give it up.´´ (qtd. in Raines, 1977: p. 308) Then the policemen

took her things, which was a purse and a shopping bag and sat her into the police car.

(Parks 212-213)

2.3 The arrest

When the policemen with Rosa Parks arrived at the jail she was asked some questions

about the situation in the bus and what the driver had said. When she asked them for

permission to make a phone call, it was denied. They put her in a cell for a while and

then took her out so as to make some photos of her and take fingerprints. After this she

could use the telephone. (Raines 308)

Rosa Parks called her mother and told her about the situation she was in, which upset

the mother. She ensured herself that her daughter was not beaten and handed the phone

to Mr. Parks, Rosa´s husband. Mrs. Parks asked him to come as soon as possible, which

he promised to do although he did not have a car. She was then taken back to the cell.

When she was describing her feelings later she denied having been scared much or

indignant. She was more resigned and calm. (Parks 214)

Shortly after the police arrested Rosa Parks, E.D. Nixon was informed about it. There

was Eddie Mae Pratt on the bus, a woman whose friend Bertha T. Butler was a friend of

Rosa Parks. In the moment when Mrs. Parks refused to give up her seat, Mrs. Pratt was

in the crowd at the back of the bus and did not see what was happening but the

information of a black lady was spreading quickly around the bus. When Rosa Parks

was taken out by the policemen and led to the police car, Mrs. Pratt saw her through the

bus window and recognized a friend of her neighbour Mrs. Butler. She was shocked and

as soon as the bus went on and arrived at the given stop, she hurried straight to Bertha

Butler to tell her what had happened. (http://www.gpo.gov)

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Mrs. Butler called E.D. Nixon immediately and he began to act. At first he had to find

out what had happened, but the sergeant he spoke with did not provide any further

information. Normally Mr. Nixon would have called Fred Gray, a black lawyer, but he

had been abroad so he called a white lawyer Clifford J. Durr, who called the police

again and then notified Nixon that Rosa Parks was arrested because of violating the

Alabama segregation law. (Raines 306)

Nixon hurried to the house of the Durr family. Mr. Durr and his wife Virginia were

already waiting for him outside. Mrs. Virginia Durr accompanied the two men because

she knew Rosa Parks well, as Mrs. Parks sometimes did some sewing work for her

daughters. (http://www.colorado.edu)

Not long after Rosa Parks was sitting in her cell, she was taken out again. There were

Mr. and Mrs. Durr with Mr. Nixon, who paid the bail, waiting for her. She was pleased

to see them. They were upset and curious whether Mrs. Parks had been beaten or bad

treated. Mrs. Durr seemed moved and she welcomed Mrs. Parks heartily. Together they

took all the things and found out the date of a trial, which was agreed to be on Monday,

5th

December. Then together they left. (Parks 214)

2.4 Reactions

From the jail Rosa Parks, the Durrs and Mr. Nixon went straight to the house of the

Parks family. Mr. Raymond Parks, who was barber, and Rosa´s mother were eager to

hear every detail of what had happened. E.D. Nixon did not want to break the

atmosphere of the family enjoying being together, but he had one thing in his mind that

he had to solve. He took Mr. Durr aside and asked him about his opinion, whether it

would be the suitable case for attempting to reach some success in gaining equal rights.

Clifford Durr shared Nixon´s enthusiasm about Rosa Parks and her family. He only

pointed to the fact that it would probably be a long process before the case could come

20

to the federal court from the state one. But he had no doubts it was worth trying.

(http://www.colorado.edu)

Mr. Nixon was very well aware of the fact that Rosa Parks was the ideal person for

defending her rights (as rights of all black community) at the court. He knew her very

well as she had been working as his secretary for twelve years. Walt Harrington wrote

in his writing:

´´Rosa Parks, because of her well-mannered, serene demeanor, her

proper speech, her humble, saintly way, her ascetic lifestyle – she

didn´t drink, smoke or curse – carried not only the image but the

reality of the deserving Negro. Mrs. Parks had the qualities middle-

class whites claimed in themselves and denied in blacks. Nothing

about her supported the white contention that she deserved to be

treated as inferior.´´ (http://www.gpo.gov)

After discussing the matter with Mr. Durr, E.D. Nixon did not hesitate to ask Rosa

Parks privately whether she would plead herself not guilty at the court and make her

case the test case as they had intended many times before. He did not get an immediate

answer. Giving the case the publicity and political subtext would mean having uneasy

time to the whole Parks´ family. Rosa was aware of that so she needed to discuss it with

her relatives first. She started with her mother and continued with discussing it with her

husband. None of them was enthusiastic about the idea because they knew it would be

difficult and they were also afraid for Rosa. Mr. Parks kept telling her: ´´The white folks

will kill you, Rosa.´´ (http://www.colorado.edu)

But neither her husband nor her mother was discouraging her from her own decision.

And Rosa Parks agreed. She trusted Mr. Nixon and if he thought she was the person

who could be useful for the fight against segregation, she was ready to help. They all

discussed the matter for some time and then everyone left the Parks´ family alone.

There were many things which had to done. (Raines 309)

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3. The Montgomery bus boycott

3.1 Preparations

The information about the arrest of Rosa Parks was spreading quickly among the black

community. Members of Women´s Political Council were aroused. It was clear that it

might have been the chance they had been waiting for. The decision to boycott the buses

came quickly. Through the phone calls they agreed that E.D. Nixon should be in the

vanguard of the whole action, which he accepted. (King 44)

Nixon did not hesitate to plan the boycott. In the late evening after the arrest of Mrs.

Parks he began with the preparations. At first he drew a simple plan of Montgomery and

tried to think about the possibilities of black citizens to walk to their work. He found out

that it should have been possible for everyone. His wife did not share his enthusiasm but

she was not against it. Then Nixon made a list of names he wanted to call. He started

with Ralph Abernathy, the minister of the First Baptist Church. He agreed with the

boycott and being a part of it. Then Nixon spoke to Mr. Hubbard, president of the

Baptist Ministerial Alliance, who also promised to help. The next one to call was Martin

Luther King. (Raines 310-311)

It was early in the morning after the arrest of Rosa Parks when Nixon called King.

Without usual polite greetings Nixon acquainted him with the news of the previous day

and told him: ´´We have taken this type of thing too long already. I feel that the time has

come to boycott the buses. Only through a boycott can we make it clear to the white

folks that we will not accept this type of treatment any longer.´´ (qtd. in King 1958, 45)

King asked Nixon to call him back in a while because he had to think it over. When

Nixon did so, King was definitely decided to join the action and since his church was

22

the most influential one in the black community, he provided it to be a meeting place.

(Raines 311)

Nixon was not the only one who was alarming others and making arrangements for the

boycott. Jo Ann Robinson and her colleagues from Women´s Political Council met

during the night after the arrest of Rosa Parks. Together they were creating a text of

leaflets which were to be distributed among the black community of Montgomery. The

final version was as follows:

´´Another Negro woman has been arrested and thrown into jail

because she refused to get up out of her seat on the bus and give it to a

white person. Until we do something to stop these arrests, they will

continue. The next time it may be you, or you or you. This woman´s

case will come up Monday. We are, therefore, asking every Negro to

stay off the buses on Monday in protest of the arrest and trial.´´

(http://www.colorado.edu)

There were 52,500 leaflets made at Alabama State School, where Robinson was

teaching. She had to explain later to H. Councill Trenholm, the black president of

Alabama State, what had happened and promised him to pay for the paper used. He

accepted it for his wife was also a member of the Council. The next day all the leaflets

were distributed around the city. Members of Women´s Political Council, their friends,

students and various volunteers helped with the distribution. Soon there were leaflets at

every possible public place including black schools, churches, shops, bus stops, pubs

and so on. (http://www.gpo.gov)

Realizing the crucial role of civic leaders and known personalities in persuading the

whole black community to join the boycott, Nixon and his colleagues arranged a

meeting on Friday evening where the organization of the boycott would be discussed. It

was held in King´s church. He described in his book that surprisingly the majority of

23

addressed people were crowded in the meeting room, including teachers, lawyers,

clergymen and others representatives of the whole black community. (King 45-46)

E.D. Nixon was not present at the meeting because of his duties as a Pullman porter so

he charged another minister to preside. As he did not want any leaders of the boycott to

be elected in his absence, Nixon gave the instruction to the minister and so no elections

took place at the meeting. He wanted to be sure that people who were to become main

personalities of the boycott and would have to influence the masses would be chosen

carefully. (Raines 311)

The name of the minister in charge was Lerone Loy Bennett. He was a president of

Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance. The meeting began at half past six with the

opening speech of Mr. Bennett who briefly summarized the recent events and the need

of uniting black people against segregation. He also pointed to the fact that they had to

act and there was no time to talk, which caused chaos for a couple of minutes because

everyone wanted to gain more information and make queries about the realization of the

boycott. Finally Mr. Bennett made concession and the discussion started. (King 46-47)

During the meeting, many organizational issues were discussed, tasks were distributed,

such as calling eighteen black taxi companies of Montgomery to inform them about the

boycott on Monday. Also new leaflets were printed with a text similar to the old one,

created by Women´s Political Council, but shortened and supplemented by some new

instructions:

´´Don´t ride the bus to work, to town, to school, or any place in

Montgomery, December 5. If you work, take a cab, or share a ride, or

walk. Come to a mass meeting, Monday at 7:00 p.m., at the Holt

Street Baptist Church for further instruction.´´

(http://www.colorado.edu)

24

At the end of the meeting it was agreed that the boycott should get more publicity

during the weekend and there would be another meeting after the boycott on Monday

evening where they would sum it up and decide what the next step would be. It was

around midnight when they finished and went home. (http://hb2hosting.net)

During the weekend new leaflets were distributed around the city, ministers appealed to

people in churches for joining the boycott so as to show the unity and the dissatisfaction

with the segregation. Also all the taxi companies agreed to transfer black people on

Monday for 10 cent, which was the usual price for a bus drive. The message was

spreading very quickly also thank to a black woman who was not able to read properly

and not knowing what the text was saying, she showed one of the leaflets to her white

employer who immediately informed the Montgomery Advertiser. So the news

appeared also in the press, which caused that till the end of the weekend there were

hardly any black citizens who had not heard about the upcoming event. (King 49)

E.D. Nixon later described differently the way of how the news about the planned

boycott reached the press. He told in an interview that in fact the journalist who had

written the article about the boycott was his close friend Joe Azbell. Nixon arranged a

meeting with him and told him everything about the arrest of Rosa Parks and following

plans. He wanted Azbell to write a good article which would help to catch attention of

the greatest possible amount of black citizens. Despite realizing that he was putting his

job at risk, which proved to be right because not long after this he was dismissed, Azbell

did his best. His article, which included also the words from the leaflets, covered two

columns on the front page in the Sunday Advertiser and helped a great deal to spread

the information among the black. (Raines 311-312)

After the days full of work and preparations, the black leaders of Montgomery awaited

the day of the boycott with big expectation. At that moment there was nothing more to

be done. It was in hands of all black Montgomery citizens. The city was awaiting with

curiosity what the new day would bring.

25

3.2 December 5

3.2.1 Empty buses

M.L. King and his wife Coretta were nervously awaiting the first indications of the

action from five thirty in the morning. King and other black leaders shared the

conviction that sixty percent cooperation would be considered success. At six o´clock

the first bus was passing their house when Coretta, sitting by a window, shouted:

´´Martin! Martin! Come quickly!´´ King hurried to the living room and looked outside

at an orange bus. To his great surprise, the bus was empty. Trying to avoid the

premature joy, he waited for the second bus, which was, however, almost empty, as well

as the third one. King wanted to ensure himself, so he got on his car and was driving

through the city looking through the windows into every bus he met. The results were

the same. (Bennett 64)

Most of the buses were followed by police cars. A new police commissioner Clyde

Sellers ordered it because of his presumption that black groups would try to prevent

others from getting on the buses by force. However, the effect of police officers behind

the buses was nearly opposite. Many black people noticing the police decided not to

take the bus so as to avoid the police. Their only action of that day was an arrest of a

nineteen-year-old student who had offered an old woman a drive in his car. He was

charged with intimidating passengers. However, this act was considered to be nothing

more than a desperate attempt to react somehow. (http://www.colorado.edu)

The success was unexpectedly huge. Almost a hundred percent cooperation was

reached. Instead of taking the bus the black people were walking to their jobs, to

schools or they shared cars, buggies or rode mules to any distant place. Groups of young

people were gathering at bus stops to cheer the empty buses and were laughing, singing

and making jokes. This continued during the whole day. (King 54)

26

3.2.2 Rosa Parks´ trial

In the same morning the trial with Rosa Parks took place. Her attorney was a young

man Fred D. Gray, who was to become the main lawyer of the whole Montgomery bus

boycott movement. In his book Bus Ride to Justice he wrote that before the case he had

met with Mrs. Parks, who was also his friend, Mr. Nixon, M. L. King and other leaders

to agree on the tactics. Then they walked together to the Recorders Court of the City of

Montgomery where the trial was to be held at 9 a.m. The whole process took only thirty

minutes. (Gray 55)

As it was expected, Mrs. Parks was found guilty of violating the segregation law and

fined fourteen dollars altogether with the court costs. She appealed against the decision.

E.D. Nixon described later, that when he had left the court room to make bond for Mrs.

Parks´ release, he was shocked by the number of blacks standing outside. According to

his words there were about a thousand people gathered around and waiting for the

results of the court case. Having expected only a few relatives of Rosa Parks, Nixon was

delighted by the huge concern of the public. (http://www.colorado.edu)

3.2.3 Preparing the meeting

After the trial E.D. Nixon met with Reverend Abernathy and Reverend French, a

leading Methodist minister. They were aware of the necessity to meet with other

ministers before the planned mass meeting to discuss some organizational issues. After

the one day success it was probable that the boycott should continue until at least some

demands were met. They wanted the city and the bus company to hire black bus drivers

as well, demanded more courtesy to the black from all bus drivers and insisted the

seating system be changed. Nixon expressed these demands in short recommendations

which said: ´´Seatin´ on the bus, first come, first served. Negro bus drivers in

predominant Negro neighborhoods. More courtesy to Negro patrons.´´ (qtd. in Raines

1977: p. 313)

27

Necessary steps had to be taken. At first they needed to prepare everything for the

discussion. Together they were thinking about the official name for the new

organization. Having rejected some proposals, they finally agreed on the name

Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), suggested by Abernathy. Then it came

to the president of the organization. To his companions´ surprise, Nixon suggested

another person instead of himself. His recommendation was young, twenty-six years

old, Martin Luther King. (Raines 313-314)

Because Nixon´s job as a Pullman porter demanded his being out of town quite often

and also realizing that in his nearly sixty he might not have enough energy for the task

of leadership, Nixon had been looking for someone with persuasive rhetorical skills,

who would have the power to mesmerize masses and would breathe new life into the

civil rights movement. Nixon had heard M.L. King speaking before, during a meeting at

Alabama State College and was impressed by his oratory. Also, King was new in the

community and was not involved in any struggle between black leaders. So it occurred

to Nixon that King might have been the right choice. (Williams 59)

At 3 p.m. black leaders gathered to discuss the upcoming mass meeting. Nixon

acquainted them with the proposal of forming the Montgomery Improvement

Association, which was welcome with pleasure. Then M.L. King was recommended to

become a president and was elected immediately. King described later in his book that it

was too unexpected and quick for him to think it over properly. Having had more time

for decision, he would have probably refused the proposal, as he had refused another

leading role in the local NAACP recently because he wanted to concentrate more on his

work as a preacher. (King 56)

The discussion went on. The next issue was how to perform the boycott without white

people knowing about it. Someone suggested people could normally sing and pray

28

during the mass meeting and some leaflets could be secretly delivered among them, then

suddenly Nixon stood up and said:

´´What the hell you people talkin´ ´bout? How you gonna have a

mass meeting, gonna boycott a city bus line without the white folks

knowing it? You guys have went around here and lived off these poor

wash-women all your lives and ain´t never done nothing for ´em. And

now you got a chance to do something for ´em, you talkin´ about you

don´t want the white folks to know it. Unless´n this program is

accepted and brought into the church like a decent, respectable

organization, I´ll take the microphone and tell ´em the reason we don´t

have a program is ´cause you all are too scared to stand on your feet

and be counted. You oughta make up your mind right now that you

gon´ either admit you are a grown man or concede to the fact that you

are a bunch of scared boys.´´ (qtd. in Raines 1977: p. 314-315)

After Nixon´s outburst the issue of running the action secretly was not mentioned again.

Then someone said it would be probably better to call off the protest, because they had

shown the unity and power, but if they were to continue, people would get tired and use

buses again, which would show the opposition that the threat was nothing serious. It

was therefore agreed that the decision, whether to continue the boycott, would be made

during the mass meeting according to the people. If the black would show little

enthusiasm about the whole action, the protest would be suspended. Having had elected

other officers for the association, the program of the evening meeting was planned.

(http://www.colorado.edu)

The main speech would be up to the new president, M.L. King. There was not much

time left to the meeting so King hurried home to prepare for it. To his relief, Coretta

accepted the news about his new function as a president with understanding. Without

any supper he started to work on the speech which he called later the most decisive

speech of his life. For a usual sermon he needed fifteen hours. This time he had less

than half an hour. He made only brief notes on a piece of paper expressing the main

29

ideas he wanted to mention. The greatest importance was attached to the method of the

whole boycott, which should have been, according to King, in compliance with

Christian principles and therefore nonviolent. (http://www.colorado.edu)

3.2.4 The mass meeting

In his book King wrote that when writing his notes for the speech, he felt very nervous

and uncertain. He was full of doubts and was aware of the pressure of the moment. It

was hard to concentrate. He prayed to God to calm himself down, which finally helped.

Then he drove to the Holt Street Baptist Church. He had to leave the car four blocks

before it since there were cars parking everywhere. It took him a while since he realized

that the cars belong to people who had come to the meeting. He was shocked when he

saw the huge crowd. There were more than four thousand blacks gathered outside the

church, apart from the ones crowded inside. This was persuasive enough for King and

the others to reassure themselves that the boycott should continue. (King 60-61)

With half an hour delay the meeting started. The crowd outside was listening to the

loudspeakers as a voice was expressing the gratitude for the unity and solidarity which

people had shown during the day. Together they sang the Onward Christian Soldiers

song and then Martin Luther King began his speech. At first he summed up the recent

events and put emphasis on mentioning the arrest of Rosa Parks and other injustices

which had happened to blacks. He continued:

´´There comes a time when people get tired. We are here this

evening to say to those who have mistreated us so long that we are

tired – tired of being segregated and humiliated, tired of being kicked

about by the brutal feet of oppression. We have no alternative but to

protest. For many years, we have shown amazing patience. We have

sometimes given our white brothers the feeling that we liked the way

we were being treated. But we come here tonight to be saved from that

30

patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and

justice. We are impatient for justice. But we will protest with love.

There will be no violence on our part. Love must be our regulating

ideal. If we fail to do this our protest will end up as a meaningless

drama on the stage of history, and its memory will be shrouded with

the ugly garments of shame. Let no man pull you so low as to make

you hate him.´´ (qtd. in Sitkoff 1994: p. 45)

During his speech, King pointed to the importance of using the only possible method,

which was the protest. Any other method that would have included violence would have

resembled methods used by the Ku-Klux-Klan or the White Citizens Council. They

wanted the aim to be reached by legal means. Also he highlighted the necessity of black

unity in the protest. As he was speaking, the crowd under him was shouting out

expressions of agreement and enthusiasm so he had to repeat some sentences, which

impassioned the listeners even more. He continued:

´´If you will protest courageously, and yet with dignity and Christian

love, when the history book are written in future generations, the

historians will have to pause and say, ´There lived a great people - a

black people - who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of

civilization.´ This is our challenge and our overwhelming

responsibility.´´ (qtd. in Bennett 1964: p. 66)

When he finished people gave him a standing ovation. Then E.N. French introduced

Rosa Parks, which raised another wave of enthusiasm. She become a symbol for the

black people of Montgomery. After that the floor was given to Mr. Ralph Abernathy,

who read the three demands: Hiring black drivers in predominantly black areas, treating

black passengers with courtesy and the ´´first-come, first-sit´´ seating system on the bus.

Having had read that, he asked all the present people to stand up in case they agreed

with the demands and were willing to stay off the buses until the demands were met.

Without any exception, the people stood up. So the boycott was confirmed. (King 64)

31

E.D. Nixon later described the King´s speech as a ´´masterpiece´´. He considered the

whole meeting extremely successful and encouraging. Nixon himself remembered his

own words from the evening which according to him elicited cheerful hollering:

´´Good evening, my friends. I´m so happy to see all of you out here

tonight, but I wanna tell you somethin´. If you´re scared, you better

get your hat and coat and go home. It´s gon´ be a long drawn-out

affair and before it´s over with somebody gon´ die. May be me, I

don´t know. The only request I have is if I´m the one that dies, don´t

let me die in vain. For twenty-some-odd years I been fighting and

saying to myself that I didn´t want the children to come along and

have to suffer all the insults that I´ve suffered. Well, hell, I changed

my mind tonight. I decided that I wanted to enjoy some of this

freedom myself.´´ (qtd. in Raines 1977: p. 315)

After the meeting the black people of Montgomery went home full of expectation,

convinced to fight for equal rights and their freedom. The black leaders were also

encouraged by the great concern of people. However, they realized that they must not

have rested on their laurels and if the people´s determination was to prevail, their task

would be much tougher.

32

3.3 The Boycott continues

3.3.1 Next steps

After the first day of the boycott and the reached success, the civil rights leaders felt the

pressure even more than before. At that moment the expectations had increased and the

leaders wanted to fulfill them. The disappointment would have been bitter.

Encouraged by the black people´s involvement and also aware of the faith people

entrusted him with, Martin Luther King started to think about the necessary steps which

were to follow in the very first morning after his performance at the mass meeting. He

knew that a transportation committee would have to be established because helping

17,500 blacks to get to work or school and then back home every day was not an easy

task and a proper system had to be made to solve the situation at least a bit. Then a

finance committee was needed to raise money necessary for continuing the protest

successfully and a program committee which would be in charge of organizing the usual

meetings. Apart from this, the leaders would have to make some decisions and stay

united in the course of action. (King 71)

Therefore the leaders called the meeting on Wednesday to decide about following

strategy. At the time, the boycott was still more than 99 percent successful. During the

meeting, despite some small conflicts between the authorities, the members of each

committee were elected and tasks were assigned. The main organizational issues were

distributed mostly between E. D. Nixon, Rufus Lewis, M. L. King, Ralph Abernathy, Jo

Ann Robinson and Fred Gray, who became an official attorney of the MIA. But there

were many more people involved, including also a white minister, Robert Graetz. (King

72-73)

33

Ralph Abernathy, in that time aged only twenty-nine, became one of the closest

companions of M. L. King. In his book Stride Toward Freedom King described

Abernathy as his close friend and someone without whom the whole success would

have never been reached in Montgomery. (74) Without Abernathy´s supporting King as

a leader of the movement, the whole protest could have failed because of the lasting

rivalry between some of the black leaders. (Young 176) King and Abernathy were

complementing each other perfectly. Both were great speakers with considerable

influence on their listeners. When King was much philosophical, Abernathy would add

something humorous and together they had power to move the masses. (Bennett 66)

Probably the most important task which had to be solved quickly was finding the

suitable alternatives for transportation. Since the city officials stated in the first week of

the protest that any taxi driver who would charge less than the minimum fare, which

was forty-five cent, would be arrested, some other solution had to be found instead of

the eighteen black taxi companies. M. L. King therefore called his college friend T. J.

Jemison who had lead a short bus boycott in Baton Rouge in 1953. Jemison

acknowledged King with his experience with using a car pool. Together they were

discussing the possibilities of organizing a massive car pools in Montgomery.

In the evening at the regular mass meeting King explained the system of the car pools.

There had to be people willing to provide their cars and also volunteers who would

drive them. People would share the drives and MIA would collect money during the

mass meetings for the volunteers to pay the necessary expense. Knowing how valuable

it was to own a car and that sharing them would mean considerable change of a daily

routine for many families, King and his companions were surprised by the amount of

the volunteers. There came about 150 car owners to offer their service immediately after

the meeting. (http://www.colorado.edu.)

In a short time more cars were available and soon about three hundred of them were

regularly running between proper planned forty six stations placed throughout the black

community. Leaflets were distributed among the black people containing information

34

about the location of the stations and time schedules. Many of these stations were

situated near churches which were open to provide heated space where people could sit

and wait for a drive. (King 77)

In a few days the car pool system was working precisely, which was a tremendous

success. The black people showed enthusiasm for the whole action and there were many

of them seen to walk, which was a demonstration of their determination. Even older

blacks were participating. One of them, known among blacks as Mother Pollard, said:

´´My feets is tired, but my soul is rested.´´ Or another elderly lady: ´´I´m not walking

for myself. I´m walking for my children and my grandchildren.´´ (qtd. in Sitkoff 1994,

p. 47)

Because the whole operation could not have been working without financial support,

money was collected twice a week in churches among the black and after the boycott

became known also outside Montgomery, money started to come from other cities,

countries and later continents. In one month, the MIA gained approximately 225,000

dollars. Thank to this support the association could also provide people with advice,

necessary information or any help of that kind in the Bricklayers Hall, where people

could find support when having a problem. (Bennett 66-67) Also the MIA could hire

staff needed for dealing with everyday problems of the protest, such as answering

people´s questions and complaints, solving problems with broken cars, replying to the

amount of letters from all over the world and so on. (King 82-83)

Apart from regular church services where ministers were trying to contribute to the

people´s determination through speeches, there was a huge mass meeting twice a week,

on Mondays and Thursdays, every time in different Negro church. During this meetings

the speakers maintained the general atmosphere of hope, unity, encouragement and

longing for freedom and equality. It was necessary to keep people being aware of the

need of collective effort and each one´s personal contribution. M. L. King began to

realize the big potential which was hidden in the ´´emotionalism´´ of the black masses

and was ready to fulfill it in favor of the boycott´s success. His speeches, arousing the

35

feelings of togetherness and self-respect, were always accompanied by people´s

shouting, applauding and other expressions of agreement. (Bennett 67)

3.3.2 Looking for a solution

Since with the following days it started to be more and more obvious that the boycott

might last longer than it had been initially expected, the city officials and the bus

company realized that Blacks were serious with their demands and that a negotiation

with the Black representatives was inevitable.

On Thursday, which was the fourth day of the protest, M. L. King, Ann Robinson, Fred

Gray and some other representatives of MIA met via the Alabama Council for Human

Relations with the bus company and the city officials, including Mayor William A.

Gayle. Asking for nothing more than courtesy for black passengers and a new seating

system with no reservations for the white, King and his companions believed that the

city and the bus company would follow the demands, which surprisingly did not happen

and no compromise was accepted. Thank to this first negotiation the black leadership

began to realize that probably it was not the particular demands what had alarmed the

white officials, but the potential strength and determination of the black community.

(hb2hosting.net)

Other two sessions took place in a short time, but both of them were unsuccessful again.

The atmosphere was hostile and no concessions were made. The MIA´s officials were

disappointed and the only thing they could do was to keep the boycott continuing. Their

feelings were also hit by a black preacher Henry Russell who was present at one

negotiation and contributed to the MIA members´ disappointment by saying that the

boycott is not an action corresponding with Christian principles and by his

recommendation to stop the whole action. (http://www.colorado.edu.)

36

King and his associates found with bitterness that it was not a question of justice and

morality but of power and superiority. The white opposition was resistant to give up

their position and feared that any hint of compromise would encourage blacks to

demand more.

3.3.3 Growing impact

As the days were passing and the boycott remained successful, the effect was soon

visible. At first the white people of Montgomery did not pay much attention to the

whole issue. They did not take the boycott seriously and were mostly laughing at the

blacks´ action or ignoring it. There were few among the white community who were

willing to accept equal treatment, but their power was insignificant. Anyway, almost

nobody believed that the black leaders had a chance to persuade the black majority to

stay off the buses and restrict their comfort by that. However, as the boycott was

proceeding, it started to be more and more obvious that the initial doubts white people

had about the possible success proved to be inaccurate. Not only the bus company felt

the impact, but also city merchants were losing customers since the black did not travel

to the shops in the centre. By the end of the protest they claimed that the losses were

higher than a million dollars. (Sitkoff 46-47)

Every day the city company was losing about 65 percent of their usual profit, which

naturally caused increase of the bus fares and some restrictions in providing the full

service. This could not be left without any response. The city officials publicly joined

the White Citizens Council and on January 24 Mayor William A. Gayle had a speech on

television, in which he introduced a so called ´´get-tough´´ policy, which meant a

beginning of a war between the boycotters and the city:

37

´´We have pussy-footed around on this boycott long enough and it is

time to be frank and honest. The Negro leaders have proved they are

not interested in ending the boycott but rather in prolonging it so that

they may stir up racial strife. The Negro leaders have proved that they

will say one thing to a white man and another thing to a Negro about

the boycott. They have forced the boycott into campaign between

whether the social fabric of our community will continue to exist or

will be destroyed by a group of Negro radicals who have split asunder

the fine relationships which have existed between the Negro and white

people for generations. What they are after is the destruction of our

social fabric. The white people are firm in their convictions that they

do not care whether the Negroes ever ride a city bus again if it means

that the social fabric of our community is destroyed so that Negroes

will start riding buses again.´´ (qtd. in Bennett 1964, p. 68)

3.3.4 Hard times

With growing impact of the boycott on economical situation of Montgomery and

unwillingness to find any compromise, the city began its policy of harassment. Slanders

of the protest leaders occurred, spread by whites. Employers told their black employees

that what the leaders were really after was making a profit out of the boycott and they

were driving big cars while the other blacks were walking. Also Martin Luther King as

a president of the MIA was assailed for his low age, inexperience and short knowledge

of local situation. Jealousy was awakened in some of the black ministers who started to

feel that they would have been more suitable for the leading position than a young

newcomer. This was too much for King. At a meeting of the MIA´s executive board he

offered his resignation, but it was unanimously denied. (King 122-123)

Several blacks connected to the protest lost their jobs, the drivers of the car pools were

threatened that their driving licenses would be deprived and they were carefully

watched by the police and immediately charged high penalties when speeding. Some

38

arrests occurred for unknown reasons. The black community began to feel the pressure

and their endeavor was weakening. More blacks were seen to reoccupy the buses and

the number of volunteering drivers decreased. The whole action was endangered.

(Sitkoff 47-48)

The black people hoped to be supported by the white Church. M. L. King expected that

since they were fighting for freedom and equality, and since they were acting only in

compliance with Christian principles which were stressed and followed during the

whole protest, the white preachers would be on their side.. In his Letter from

Birmingham Jail, which he wrote some years later when leading another struggle for

equal rights, he stated that to his great disappointment, this did not happen. On the

contrary, some of them became even strong opponents. (12)

The press made a contribution to the general atmosphere of fear, jealousy and

uncertainty. In the Sunday Advertiser on January 22, an article occurred, stating that the

boycott was to end the following day because the demands of the black had been met.

This news had a purpose to confuse the boycotters and cause that they would ride buses

again. Fortunately King had received the message about the whole thing on the previous

day and managed to alarm the whole community in time, announcing that the article

was a fake aiming to destroy their protest. The boycott continued, but the people´s mood

remained gloomy. (http://www.colorado.edu.)

Reporters also wanted to find out more about the boycott organization and its

leadership. They soon discovered that it was Martin Luther King Jr. who was behind the

whole action and so the city´s attention turned to him.

39

3.3.5 King´s first arrest

On Thursday, January 26, M. L. King was driving home from his church office. On the

way he stopped at one of the car pool stops to take some of the waiting blacks going in

the same direction. But they did not go far and his car was stopped by a police officer.

When looking at his driving license, the policemen realized who the man was whom

they had just stopped. Then they let him continue the drive and so he did. But there

emerged another two policemen on motorcycles behind the car. One of them was

following King´s car the whole way. King therefore was careful to follow traffic

regulations, but as he stopped to let three of his passengers get off the car, the policeman

appeared and said: ´´Get out, King. You are under arrest for speeding thirty miles an

hour in a twenty-five mile zone.´´ (qtd. in King 1958, p.128) Then King was searched

and put into the police car which arrived in a short moment. (King 127-128)

Sitting in the car and riding further and further away from a city centre, King became

overwhelmed by constant fear. Having no exact idea about the location of the city jail,

he started to be almost certain that he would not be taken to the jail, but would be

probably beaten if not even murdered. To his great relief, after some kilometers they

arrived at the city jail. There he was placed into the cell with criminals who were

curious to hear his story and urged him not to forget them when he got out again. The

whole experience had big influence on King. Seeing the conditions the men were living

under, such as crowded cells, open toilets and dehumanization, he later claimed that

´´no matter what these men had done, they shouldn´t be treated like this.´´ (qtd. in

Bennett 1964, p.69)

Ralph Abernathy was the first one to arrive to the jail. But since he did not have enough

money for the bond he returned to find someone willing to provide the amount in cash.

Meanwhile the news about his arrest spread among Montgomery and soon a crowd of

angry blacks gathered in front of the city jail. The jailers were taken aback by the

number of people outside, announced that King´s trial would be held on following

Monday and released him. King, pleased by the huge interest of ´´his people´´, thanked

40

the crowd and was taken home. At the same evening a huge mass meeting took place,

attended by enormous amount of blacks. It was clear that the whole thing helped to

unify the boycotters again and restore their determination. (http://www.colorado.edu.)

At the trial some days later King was found guilty despite his attorney´s objections and

his own statement that he had been aware of the police officers following his car and

therefore had been extremely careful not to break the traffic rules. He was fined

fourteen dollars including the court costs. (Williams 122)

3.3.6 Bomb

When the Montgomery started to realize that the ´´get-tough´´ policy was not successful

enough to stop the boycott, the protesters were awaiting what would follow. Since the

boycott had started the leaders had been receiving dozens of threatening messages and

phone calls. King described in his book that initially he did not pay special attention to

it, but as it continued and some rumors appeared about whites´ planning to assassinate

him, he began to worry about his family and his own life. During the strong feelings of

uncertainty and despair he always turned to his faith. (King 132-135)

On Monday, January 30, King had a speech at a mass meeting when he noticed that

something had probably happened. From his pulpit he saw someone talking to

Abernathy with worried expression on his face and then caught hesitant looks at

himself. He finished his speech and approached Abernathy to find out what was the

news: His house had been bombed. Shocked but calm he informed the people in the

church and then hurried home. (http://www.colorado.edu.)

To his great relief he found both his wife Coretta and their child unharmed. When the

bomb was thrown on the porch Coretta was talking to a friend in the living room when

they heard a sound which was as if someone had thrown a brick there. She later

41

explained that some inner voice told her it would have been better to go to the back of

the house where the child was sleeping, so together with the friend they did so. Then the

bomb exploded, leaving the porch damaged and the house filled with shards and dust.

Immediately people were coming to see what had happened and the telephone started to

ring. (Bennett 69-70)

In a short moment a huge crowd of angry blacks surrounded the house. People were

outraged and ready to show their indignation. Many of them were holding various

weapons, such as knives, guns or at least empty bottles. Some city officials also arrived,

including Mayor Gayle who expressed his regret about the attack to the King family.

Several reporters appeared, eager to get more information. (Sitkoff 48)

Calmed down, King went out from the house to soothe the crowd. He felt uneasy about

the belligerent atmosphere. He stood in front of the people and said:

´´Now let´s not become panicky. If you have weapons, take them

home. If you do not have them, please do not seek to get them. We

cannot solve this problem through retaliatory violence. We must meet

violence with nonviolence. Remember the words of Jesus: ´He who

lives by the sword will perish by the sword.´ We must love our white

brothers, no matter what they do to us. We must make them know that

we love them. Jesus still cries out in words that echo across the

centuries: ´Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; pray for

them that despitefully use you.´ This is what we must live by. We

must meet hate with love. Remember, if I am stopped, this movement

will not stop, because God is with the movement. Go home with this

glowing faith and this radiant assurance.´´ (qtd. in King 1958, p. 137-

138)

42

This accident made the movement stronger and showed that the meaning was wider

than a simple fight against the bus seating system. It was struggle for equality between

the black and white. Another effect was that King became a symbol and gained respect

of the whole black community.

3.3.7 Non-violence

Martin Luther King as the leader of the protest influenced the whole movement most.

He insisted on observance of Christian principles of love and nonviolence. The only

violence he was willing to admit, was the defensive violence, used when being attacked.

But in case of a protest, no violence was accepted by King. (Young 120)

The nonviolent method was used during the whole boycott. In one of his speeches, King

said:

´´…integration places certain ethical demands upon those who have

been on the oppressed end of the old order. Perhaps this is why it is

my personal conviction that the most potent instrument the Negro

community can use to gain total emancipation in America is that of

nonviolent resistance.´´ (qtd. in King 1990, p. 124)

King was inspired by Christianity and also by Mahatma Gandhi. When he read more

about Gandhi and his methods, King felt that this was the way the black people in

Montgomery should try to reach success. (King 96-97)

To put the theory into practice, black preachers mentioned nonviolent principles during

the mass meetings and also some leaflets were distributed among protesters. The leaflets

contained rules to follow:

43

´´Pray for guidance and commit yourself to complete nonviolence in

word and action as you enter the bus…. Be loving enough to absorb

evil and understanding enough to turn an enemy into a friend…. If

cursed, do not curse back. If pushed, do not push back. If struck, do

not strike back, but evidence love and goodwill at all times…. If

another person is being molested, do not arise to go to his defense, but

pray for the oppressor and use moral and spiritual force to carry on the

struggle for justice…. Do not be afraid to experiment with new and

creative techniques for achieving reconciliation and social change….

If you feel you cannot take it, walk for another week or two.´´ (qtd. in

Sitkoff 1994, p. 53)

3.3.8 Massive arrest

A few days later after the bomb had been thrown at the King´s house, the boycotters had

to face another inconvenience. On February 21, the city announced that the protest is

against law 1921 according to which it was prohibited to ´´hinder lawful business

without just cause or legal excuse.´´ (qtd. in Bennet 1964, p.76) On the grounds of this,

almost a hundred of the boycotters were to be arrested in the following few hours. But

instead of waiting for the police to come for them, the accused ones came to the police

station of their own accord. E. D. Nixon was the first one. He came to the station and

said: ´´You are looking for me? Here I am.´´ (qtd. in Sitkoff 1994, p.49)

Nixon was taken to the city jail, there he was photographed and fingerprinted and after

the bond was paid, he was released. Thank to him, arresting was suddenly viewed as

nothing dangerous or unbearable. Words about his behavior spread quickly and soon

many others followed him. The crowd of cheering blacks gathered outside the jail and

some people came in to find out whether they were on the list of people to be arrested or

44

not. Again the whole attempt to end the protest once for all failed and caused quite

opposite reactions. (http://www.colorado.edu)

Martin Luther King was away from Montgomery when the arrests happened.

Immediately after he was acknowledged with the news, he wanted to return. His father

tried to stop him, since he was afraid that in fact the Montgomery officials wanted to get

King particularly and they did not care much about other leaders. But Martin Luther

insisted. He arrived to Montgomery a day after the arrests of his colleagues. There were

immediately reporters and photographers surrounding him. He went directly to the city

jail, where he was again photographed and then released on bond. (King 144-146)

After the arrests a great mass meeting took place at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church,

attended by thousands of protesters. During this meeting a new song was sung which

expressed the main principles of the movement and encouraged people to go on:

´´We are moving on to vict´ry

With hope and dignity.

We shall all stand together

Till everyone is free.

We know love is the watchword

For peace and liberty

Black and white, all our brothers

To live in harmony.´´

(qtd. in Sitkoff 1994, p.49)

45

Having sung the song, the church grew quiet and Martin Luther King began his speech

entitled ´´Faith in Man´´:

´´Integration is the great issue of our age, the great issue of our nation

and the great issue of our community. We are in the midst of a great

struggle, the consequences of which will be world-shaking. But our

victory will not be for Montgomery´s Negroes alone. It will be a

victory for justice, a victory for fair play and a victory for democracy.

Were we to stop right now, we would have won a victory because the

Negro has achieved from this a new dignity. But we are not going to

stop. We are going in the same spirit of love and protest, and the same

dignity we have shown in the past.´´

(qtd. in Cone 1991, p. 64)

The trial with ninety-eight boycott activists, including twenty-four church ministers,

started on March 19 and lasted four days. It was attended by many supporters from the

whole country and reporters from the whole world. Some of the blacks were wearing

labels with a sign ´´Father, forgive them.´´ Judge Eugene Carter found the defendants

guilty and fined them a penalty. In King´s case, because of his having been the main

defendant as the leader and organizer, it was 500 dollars. However, according to King

himself, this defeat had again advantage in showing the power of blacks´ unity. And

because of appealing to the decision, the boycott was to continue until the federal court

considered the case. (King 147-149)

The protest went on successfully, but the appealed case had never taken place at the

federal court, because King´s attorneys made a mistake and sent necessary papers late,

by which the right to appeal was lost. For a while the course of the movement was

brought to a standstill. (Kennedy 1043)

46

3.4 Final decision

3.4.1 Browder v. Gayle case

The boycott was going on. For some days there was nothing coming what would

considerably change the course of action, until four black women, one of them named

Mrs. Browder, filed the suit in the federal court, demanding the end of the segregation

on the buses, since it was incompatible with the Fourteenth Amendment, which

provided equal treatment to all citizens. The case, called Browder v. Gayle, according to

the Mayor Gayle, was held on May 11. (Williams 212)

Three judges at the United States Federal District Court were deliberating the case for

several days. On June 4, 1956, the decision was made by a two-to-one vote: ´´We hold

that the statutes requiring segregation of the white and colored races on a common

carrier violate the due process and equal protection of the law clauses of the Fourteenth

Amendment.´´ (qtd. in Sitkoff 1994, p.50). The segregation was claimed to be

unconstitutional. The city attorneys appealed the case to the United Sates Supreme

Court immediately. Even though the victory of the boycotters was not definite yet, the

movement continued with new power and hope.

3.4.2 The last attempt of the city

The city of Montgomery was waiting for the final decision of the Supreme Court. The

boycott was in progress for several months, thank to the perfect system of the car pools,

which was even better than at the beginning. The city officials realized the dependence

of the movement´s success on the car pools. In November, 1956, city attorneys filed a

suit, asking to forbid the car pool system due to the fact that it was ´´infringing on the

bus company´s exclusive franchise.´´ (http://go.galegroup.com)

47

MIA attorneys were aware of this legal way how to stop the course of the boycott and

had been afraid of this to happen. The hearing was set on November 13. City attorneys

demanded not only the car pools to be stopped, but also wanted the MIA to pay a fine of

15,000 dollars to the city as a compensation for the losses on tax.

(http://www.colorado.edu)

During the trial the MIA attorney Fred Gray received a note by a reporter Frank McGee

that he was waiting for his outside with highly important news. Gray excused himself

and left the court room to find out more. The reporter had received a message that ´´the

United States Supreme Court had just affirmed the local federal court in Browder v.

Gayle.´´ (Gray 93)

The word about the victory spread quickly through the court room. After some minutes

of hustle and sounds of joy and relief, the judge Eugene Carter went on in the trial, but

even though it finally end in favor of the city, the blacks were happy. Their struggle had

been not unavailing. (King 160)

3.4.3 Victory

A day after the news of victory appeared, two meetings took place in Montgomery

black churches, attended by ten thousand people. Preachers´ speeches were interrupted

by applause, shouts of joy and agreement and by people´s expressions of emotion.

Martin Luther King said:

´´All along, we have sought to carry out the protest on high moral

standards…rooted in the deep soil of the Christian faith. We have

carefully avoided bitterness. The months have not at all been

48

easy…Our feet have often been tired and our automobiles worn, but

we have kept going with the faith that in our struggle we had cosmic

companionship, and that, at bottom, the universe is on the side of

justice. The Supreme Court decision was a revelation of the eternal

validity of the faith, and came to all of us as a joyous daybreak to end

the long night of enforced segregation in public transportation.´´

(Bennett 77)

At the same night, after the meetings which were full of enthusiasm and emotions, the

Ku Klux Klan tried to frighten the black Montgomery by driving slowly through the

city, as an expression of threat. Normally the blacks would have hid and run away, but

on that day they were prepared for it and behave as if nothing was there. Their joy from

the reached victory could not have been spoilt. (Sitkoff 52)

3.4.4 Integrated buses

Since the order from the Supreme Court did not come to Montgomery immediately after

the decision, the blacks stayed off the buses for another few weeks. During this time, the

MIA was busy with preparations for the upcoming changes. They did not want the black

people to be impolite and to misuse their rights. Therefore, leaflets were distributed

among people, providing advice how to act on an integrated bus. Also discussions at

schools were held and nonviolent principles were mentioned at the mass meetings.

(King 163-169)

On Friday, December 21, the buses were definitively integrated. The boycott was over.

In the morning King and his colleagues got on a bus, accompanied by many reporters

and photographers. They sat wherever they wanted to. An article in The New York

Times read: ´´They sat in the first empty seats they saw, in the front of buses and in the

rear. They did not get up to give a white passenger a seat. And whites sat with

Negroes.´´ (Sitkoff 52)

49

The black victory was not fully accepted by whites immediately. There were threats,

some of the black passengers were injured by shotguns and bombings occurred in some

churches and houses of the black leaders, including Ralph Abernathy and Robert

Graetz. Several members of the Ku Klux Klan were arrested. The atmosphere began to

ease. (http://go.galegroup.com)

50

Conclusion

There had been many attempts to fight for black equality before the year 1955. But none

of them was of the same duration and significance as the Montgomery bus boycott. In

that case, many necessary factors met: The general atmosphere in the South was

promising for the Black because of the recent Supreme Court´s decision on school

integration. So the timing seemed to be ideal for a protest. Then there were influential

leaders among the black community who were able to cooperate satisfyingly and were

good orators. And there was a great deal of determination and sense of unity.

Soon the success of the boycott in Montgomery and the method of nonviolent resistance

gained world´s admiration and popularity. And what is probably even more important –

it encouraged many others in similar situations to act. There were so called ´´sit-ins´´,

when students refused to leave restaurants or snack bars until they were served properly.

Then protests took place in Birmingham, Alabama, where also children participated. Or

a march from Selma to Montgomery was organized to support voting rights for blacks.

Many other protests, boycotts and fights appeared and Martin Luther King was always

involved until his death. In 1964 the Civil Rights Law was ratified which guaranteed

equal rights and freedom for all U.S. citizens.

Although racial problems have never disappeared completely and they probably never

will, it can be said that black people in U.S. can live the same life as the white majority.

Many of them have achieved huge success in various areas such as sport, music, art,

film, politics and so on.

Writing the thesis about Montgomery bus boycott was highly enriching and very

interesting. The movement has hugely affected lives of millions of people and

consequences of the action can be seen in present day. The whole story should be

51

widely known to remind us that freedom and equality should be never taken as a matter

of course.

52

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