The Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955

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The Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955
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Aim

• Examine the significance of the Montgomery Bus
  Boycott to the Civil Rights Movement

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Montgomery, Alabama

• In the Southern states there was a policy of
  segregation on buses.
• White passengers would sit in the front rows of
  the bus, black passengers towards the back.
• If the front section of the bus was full, black
  passengers were expected to give up their seats.
• On the 1st December, 1955, a Black woman called
  Rosa Parks challenged this segregation.
• Rosa Parks was an active member of the NAACP.
• Rosa was arrested for refusing to give up her
  seat to a white person.

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Rosa Parks

• Her arrest led to a huge outcry amongst the Black
  community.
• 50 Black church leaders, including Martin Luther
  King met in a Montgomery church to discuss how to
  respond to this situation.
• They encouraged the local people to BOYCOTT the
  buses.
• Blacks made up 70 of the passengers on local
  buses.
• Their demands were first come, first served,
  Black bus drivers and better manners from white
  bus drivers.

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The Impact of the Boycott

• The boycott lasted for 381 days and the bus
  companies lost a huge amount of money.
• During this time Martin Luther King inspired
  local people to sustain the boycott and campaign
  for their civil rights.
• The buses were officially desegregated in
  December 1956 the bus companies had already
  started to desegregate they could not afford to
  lose anymore passengers.

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• There comes a time when people get tired
• tired of being segregated and humiliated tired
• of being kicked about by the brutal feet of
• oppression For many years we have shown
• amazing patience. We have sometimes given
• our white brothers the idea that we liked
• the way we were being treated.
• One of the great glories of democracy is
• the right to protest from right If you will
• protest courageously and yet with dignity and
• Christian love, when the history books are
• written in future generations, the historians
• will pause and say, There lived a great people,
• the black people.

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Change had been achieved using peaceful,
non-violent protest
The boycott only ended one area of segregation
Impact of the Boycott
Rosa Parks lost her job and moved to the northern
state of Michigan
Martin Luther King emerged as the leader of the
Civil Rights Movement
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Rosa Parks

• Rosa Parks continued to speak for the Civil
  Rights cause throughout her life.
• She received various awards the Congressional
  Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
• In 1999, Time magazine named her as one of the 20
  most influential and iconic figures of the 20th
  century.
• She died on 24th October, 2005 and in Montgomery
  and Detroit the front seats of the city buses
  were reserved with black ribbons.

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Tasks

• Copy and complete the flow chart from page 58 of
  your textbook Free At Last.