Montgomery Bus Boycott: Factfile Intro The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a refusal of many black Americans to use the Montgomery State bus service because it was segregating the seats. Many political figures led the boycott including Martin Luther King. Eventually, a year after a year of dispute and violence the Supreme Court ruled that the bus service could not use segregation laws. This was the first pivotal event that enabled coloured Americans to pursue freedom and justice through the Civil Rights Movement. Key Features The official start of the boycott was on December 1st 1955.
One such protest was the Montgomery Bus Boycott that occurred from 1955-56. This protest challenged the policy of bus segregation in the south. On the day of Rosa Parks trial almost the whole black community did not ride the busses. More than 66% of the riders on the busses were blacks, therefore, economically the protest hurt the bus company as the majority of the income came from black riders. Southern blacks simply stopped using the bus system to show that they weren't going to be treated unfairly, by the community, government and bus system.
On Monday 5th December 1955 Montgomery Alabama, cradle of the confederacy , bore witness to the largest display of resistance any southern state had ever experienced before. Over 50 thousand of the city’s African American population refused to ride the city’s segregated buses in protest over continued harassment and ill treatment suffered at the hands of white bus drivers. The incident that finally tipped the balance was the arrest of an African American woman called Rosa Parks, her crime was refusing to vacate her, unreserved seat in order to allow a white man to sit down, only four days earlier. The city’s empty buses became a striking symbol of the power that black citizens of Montgomery possessed. Despite having virtually no rights in white dominated society they were the bus company’s customers, the power they possessed was exactly that.
The fight for change and equality was not an easy one. In 1955, a black seamstress named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. This landmark of civil disobedience was one of the many demonstrations of the struggle for change and equality. In addition to African Americans, women and immigrants have faced similar hardships for years on end. Many groups have struggled for change and equality from the 1940s to the 1960s.
Police brutality was seen as commonplace, and 95% of the Watts police force was white. This helped foster hatred towards the police, and white people, as the black population did not feel equal. The schools that black students attended were of poor quality, and seen as a reason for the lack of employment and employable skills in the black community. The economic impact of the riots can be seen in multiple areas. There were 288 local businesses looted and burned, which were not capable of being rebuilt and never returned following the Watts Riots.
In the early 1960’s, Blacks and Whites were not treated equally. For example, Blacks couldn’t eat in the same restaurants, couldn’t drink out of the same drinking fountain, or use the same bathrooms as the Whites. They couldn’t even sit in the front of a bus. Blacks didn’t have the right to vote. President John F. Kennedy helped this change by making the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In the late 19th century, state and local governments imposed restrictions on voting qualifications which left the African community economically and politically powerless and passed segregation laws, known as Jim Crow laws. Therefore the movement focused on three main areas of discrimination to address, racial segregation, education, and voting rights. Racial segregation is the separation of humans into ethnic groups. Segregation affected many African-Americans day-to-day life, forcing them to go to separate restaurants, water fountains, public toilets, schools, and even making them ride the back of the bus. In 1955 African-Americans in Montgomery, Alabama formed a boycott in protest of the segregated seating on the city buses, In response to Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, getting arrested for refusing
Separate but Unequal: The Fight to End Desegregation Segregation is the act or practice of setting groups of people apart from each based on the pigment of their skin, which is unjust and immoral. A man needs food, water, shelter, and medicine, regardless if they are black or white. In the United States after the Civil War, American society was segregated. Segregation of public places such as restaurants, buses, and schools were allowed. The separating of black and white has caused many problems in society and these inequalities are still felt today.
Puerto Ricans experienced segregation within the military; they were not allowed to interact with the Caucasian soldiers. The Puerto Rican soldiers were poorly trained, and were considered expendable. Many of the missions that they would conduct were considered hazardous and
The Civil Rights campaigns We shall overcome The Civil Rights campaign began in the late 1950s and continued into the 1960s. Martin Luther King insisted that all the action taken should be totally non-violent and peaceful. Serious and brutal violence certainly occurred during the campaigns - violence by white racists against the Civil Rights protesters. There were several notable campaigns that occurred during this period: The Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955. This developed out of an incident where a black woman was arrested for refusing to sit in the 'blacks only' area of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.