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The Montgomery Bus Boycott and Rosa Parks

Despite the Supreme Court ruling that education had to be desegregated, there was no change in the segregation of other areas of southern society. Places such as leisure areas, water fountains and transport were still segregated, but the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was working to change that.

Rosa Parks worked at a department store in Montgomery, Alabama. She was an active member of her local NAACP branch.

In December 1955, Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. This was not the first time she had refused to give up her seat, but this time her civil disobedience prompted a city-wide response. The NAACP, alongside other local civil rights organisations such as the Women’s Political Council, decided to organise a city-wide bus boycott on the day of Parks’ trial. When the day came, most black people observed the boycott.

Around 70 per cent of the bus users in Montgomery were black, so the boycott meant the bus company's profits were greatly reduced. After Parks was found guilty and fined $10, a longer bus boycott was planned.

The Montgomery Improvement Association and Dr Martin Luther King Jnr

To organise the longer boycott, following Parks’ arrest, the local African American community created the Montgomery Improvement Association(MIA). In response to Parks’ arrest, the MIA’s actions were:

• to boycott the buses until they were desegregated
• to create and organise a carpool system
• to elect Martin Luther King to the position of president of the MIA

During the boycott, over half of all African Americans in Montgomery used carpools, while the rest walked, rode bikes or used taxis. The MIA’s actions meant that many in the community could continue taking part in the boycott and their day-to-day activities without needing to pay for bus services. This put significant financial strain on the company that ran Montgomery’s buses.

As King promoted non-violent protest, the response from his opposition was to intensify violence and hostility. King was arrested twice. Two churches were bombed in an attempt to end the boycott and silence King, Parks and the MIA. All of those who were arrested for hostilities against King and the MIA were found not guilty by all-white juries.

The NAACP and MIA worked together to fight for civil rights. In 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that the segregation rules on Montgomery’s buses were unconstitutional and had to change. Just as with the decision in Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, this was an example of a Jim Crow law that was now illegal across the whole of the USA.

After 381 days the boycott ended. Parks and King continued to contribute to the civil rights movement inside and outside Montgomery.