Montgomery Bus Boycotts

1. Period 8: The African American Civil Rights Movement Montgomery Bus Boycotts

2. Essential Question • What creates greater social change —national legislation, court decisions, organizations and leadership or the civic participation, efforts and sacrifices of common citizens and local communities?

3. Introduction: Thesis • Thesis ? • Contextualization Examples: • Protests surrounding Vietnam War • La Raza Unida and the Chicano Movement of 1970s • Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers (UFW) • Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, NOW and Feminist Movement of 1970s • Stonewall Riots and the Gay Liberation Movement of the 1970s • Russell Means and the American Indian Movement (AIM) • 1973 Rehabilitation Act sparks Disability Rights Movement • Yuji Ichioka and the Yellow Power Movement

4. Montgomery Bus Boycott begins December 1, 1955 • December 1, 1955—Rosa Parks, a forty-two year-old black seamstress, and member of the local NAACP, refused to give up her seat to a white person • Boycott • Rosa Parks • MLK • Busing • Jim Crow Laws • Civil disobedience

7. Jim Crow Laws • “It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play together or in company with each other in any game of cards or dice, dominoes or checkers.”—Birmingham, Alabama, 1930 • “Marriages are void when one party is a white person and the other is possessed of one-eighth or more negro, Japanese, or Chinese blood.”—Nebraska, 1911 • “Separate free schools shall be established for the education of children of African descent; and it shall be unlawful for any colored child to attend any white school, or any white child to attend a colored school.”—Missouri, 1929 • “All railroads carrying passengers in the state (other than street railroads) shall provide equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races, by providing two or more passenger cars for each passenger train, or by dividing the cars by a partition, so as to secure separate accommodations.”—Tennessee, 1891

8. Montgomery Bus Boycott • Montgomery, Alabama had a long history of black activism • In 1900, four years after Plessy v. Ferguson established Jim Crow and “separate but equal”, Montgomery segregated the new electric trolley lines • African-Americans of Montgomery boycotted the lines and company profits fell 25% • Trolley boycott lasted 2 years and though segregation was not overturned, there was a compromise reached between the African American community and the city: A driver could order a black rider to move only if there were vacant seats in the back of the trolley

9. Montgomery Bus Boycott • By 1955 Montgomery had 68 organizations dedicated to advancing the rights of African American citizens • One organization, Women’s Political Council (WPC), founded by Professor Mary Fair Burks of Alabama State University was comprised of educated Black women • 1955-the WPC responded to over 30 complaints by Black riders on city buses • March 2, 1955, 8 months before Rosa Parks was arrested; a 15 year old Booker T. Washington high school student, Claudette Colvin, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a White rider • Other Black women had been arrested before Colvin-Geneva Johnson, Viola White, Katie Wingfield, Espie Worthy

11. Montgomery Bus Boycott • December 1, 1955—Rosa Parks, a forty-two year-old black seamstress, and member of the local NAACP, refused to give up her seat to a white person • Parks was arrested and fined $10, plus $4 in court fees. • This wasn’t the first incident. • Parks in 1943 had boarded a bus and paid the fare. She then moved to her seat but driver James F. Blake told her to follow city rules and enter the bus again from the back door. • Parks exited the vehicle and Blake drove away before she could enter from the back • Parks waited for the next bus, determined never to ride with Blake again • Her driver on December 1, 1955—James F. Blake

13. Montgomery Bus Boycott • Discussions for a boycott had been suggested for years • May 1954, Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, WPC president and professor of English at Alabama State University sent a letter to the mayor, threatening a boycott if conditions did not improve • In Montgomery, Alabama during the fifties, African Americans made up the majority of riders on the Montgomery City Lines • The City ordinance in support of segregation dictated that blacks paid their fares in the front, got off the vehicle, and entered the “colored section” through the rear door. They also had to relinquish their seats to white passengers when the front section filled up.

15. Montgomery Bus Boycott • Parks had attended a 1955 workshop at Highlander Folk School in Tennessee four months before refusing to give up her bus seat • Founded in 1932 by Myles Horton, Highlander was one of the few places in the South where integrated meetings could take place, and it served as a site of leadership training for southern civil rights activists. • Led by Septima Clark, Highlander developed a citizenship program in the mid-1950s that taught African Americans their rights as citizens while promoting basic literacy skills.  • At Highlander, students practiced non-violent resistance and the song “We Shall Overcome” was introduced to the movement • Visitors would testify that interracial living would have a greater impact on them than workshops

16. Montgomery Bus Boycott • E.D. Nixon the leader of the local chapter of the NAACP in Montgomery, helped to bail Parks out of Jail. • News of Park’s arrest spread quickly and plans for the boycott began. • Jo Ann Robinson initiated the boycott with a call to Fred D. Gray, one of two black lawyers in Montgomery • She typed up a leaflet announcing the boycott the same day of Park’s arrest • With the help of Alabama State’s mimeograph machine she used up 35 reams of paper to produce 52,500 leaflets announcing the boycott; the leaflets were read in all of Montgomery’s Black churches

17. Montgomery Bus Boycotts • 3 days after Parks’ arrest a bus boycott was organized by local clergymen calling themselves the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) and the Women’s Political Council (WPC) • One of the original leaders of the MIA was Reverend Ralph Abernathy; in addition the MIA chose a young 28 year old minister named Martin Luther King, Jr. to lead the struggle for open seating in public transportation • King, a newcomer to town, served as pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. He was familiar with the works of Gandhi and Thoreau • Viewed mass action and non-violent resistance essential to fight against racial justice

20. Eyes on the Prize • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts10IVzUDVw • 27:00 Directions: While watching the video excerpt on the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, cite two examples of both the trench perspective and the nation perspective.

21. Montgomery Bus Boycotts • Robinson and the WPC spent the weekend charting assembly points for Monday pickups, organizing phone banks, subsidizing rates with Black taxi drivers and organizing 200 cars and trucks to use as alternate transport • An estimated 50,000 African Americans made it to their jobs and found ways to pick up their children from school; purchase groceries and make it home for over a year. • The boycott would last for 381 days • It ended on December 20, 1956 when the U.S. Supreme Court declared that local and state bus segregation laws were unconstitutional (Browder v. Gayle) • One of the four female plaintiffs was Claudette Colvin

24. Montgomery Bus Boycotts • After the boycotts, in 1957-King joined with other black ministers and activists to form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC); members included Bayard Rustin a long time labor, peace and civil rights activist; Stanley Levison, a Jewish lawyer experienced in radical causes; and Ella Baker • Baker would become the first full-time executive director; She was outspoken and suspicious of charismatic leadership; She questioned King’s non-violent approach

25. Conclusion: • Conclusion • Synthesis Examples? • Slavery and Abolitionism • Reconstruction and Civil War Amendments • Marcus Garvey and Black Nationalism of 1920s • W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington debates of late 19th Century • Obergefell v Hodges and LGBT Rights • #Me Too Movement

26. Works Cited • "Claudette Colvin." Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 10 Feb. 2017. Web. 16 Apr. 2017 • Wineburg, Sam. Et al, Reading Like a Historian, Teachers College, Columbia University, 2013. • Lawson, Stephen F. and Payne, Charles. Debating the Civil Rights Movement. Rowan and Littlefield Publishers. 2006 • Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. “Martin Luther King and the Global Freedom Struggle”. Stanford University, 2015. • History.com Staff. "Montgomery Bus Boycott." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2010. Web. 17 Apr. 2017 • "50 Years Since Montgomery Bus Boycott." Getty Images. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2017 • "Dec 01 1955 Rosa Parks Ignites Bus Boycott." Getty Images. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2017. • "Jim Crow Laws - Separate Is Not Equal." Smithsonian National Museum of American History Behring Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2017.

27. Research Assignment-Sources • PBS-The African American Experience • http://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/about/about-the-series/ • Library of Congress • https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart9.html • Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University • https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/about-papers-project • John F. Kennedy Presidential Library • http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/Civil-Rights-Movement.aspx • Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library • http://www.lbjlibrary.org/exhibits/lbj-and-civil-rights • Gilder Lehrman Institute • http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/1945-present/civil-rights-movement • National Humanities Center • http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/education-programs/#primary-sources • Eyes on the Prize Teacher Edition • https://www.facinghistory.org/sites/default/files/publications/Eyes_on_the_Prize.pdf