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The Law That Sparked the Issue
African Americans were still required by a Montgomery, Alabama, city ordinance to sit in the back half of city buses and to yield their seats to white riders if the front half of the bus, reserved for whites, was full. -
Claudette Clovin
A 15 year old girl refuses to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabam -
Parks Refuses to Move
Rosa Parks was seated in the front row of the “colored section.” When the white seats filled, the driver asked Parks and others to vacate their seats but Parks refused. -
The Flyers to Spread The Word
The Women’s Political Council (WPC), a group of Black women working for civil rights movement made flyers calling for a boycott of the bus system. (The same day parks went on trial) -
The News Spreads in Church
Black ministers announced the boycott in church on Sunday -
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
40,000 Black bus riders boycotted the system the next day. This was so influential because the majority of bus riders were African American -
Montgomery Improvement Association
Later on the day of the boycott Black leaders met to form the Montgomery Improvement Association. The group elected Martin Luther King Jr. as its president, and decided to continue the boycott until the city met its demands. This also marks the day when Martin Luther King Jr. starts to gain recognition as a leader in the civil rights movement. -
Montgomery Court Rulling
Montgomery federal court ruled that any law requiring racially segregated seating on buses violated the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. -
Supreme Court Rulling
U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the lower court’s decision to allow first come first serve seating, through front and back and hiring black drivers. -
Montgomery bus integration
Montgomery’s buses were integrated and the boycott ended