Montgomery Bus Boycott

By mireyacf22

  • Segregation

    African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama were still required to sit in the back of buses and give up their seats to white people riding if the front half of the bus was full.

  • Rosa Parks

    Rosa Parks was on her way home from work at seated in the front row of the “colored section.” When a white passenger needed a seat because the front of the bus was full, the bus driver, J. Fred Blake, asked Parks and three other passengers to give up their seats. The other riders gave up their seats, but Parks refused to do so.

  • Rosa Parks cont.

    Parks was arrested and fined $10 plus and additionally $4 in court fees. Parks called E.D. Nixon who was a prominent Black leader, and he was able to bail her out of jail and he figured Parks would be an upstanding plaintiff in a legal challenge dealing with the segregation ordinance.

  • Ministers and Papers

    African American ministers started to announce the details of the Montgomery bus boycott in churches. The Montgomery Advertiser also published a front-page article of the boycott.

  • Women's Political Council

    The Women’s Political Council were a group of African American women who were working for civil rights. They started passing around flyers that were calling for a boycott of the bus system to happen on December 5th, the same day, Rosa Parks would be in municipal court.

  • Montgomery Bus Boycott

    It is believed that about 40,000 African American bus riders boycotted the bus systems. The same day, different leaders met together to form the Montgomery Improvement Association and Martin Luther King Jr. was elected president of the MIA who then decided they would boycott until their demands were met.

  • Federal Court

    A federal court in Montgomery ruled that any law that was requiring racial segregation on buses was violating the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

  • Supreme Court

    The city of Montgomery appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the lower court.

  • Boycott is Over

    The Montgomery buses were integrated, and the boycott had officially ended.