Martin Luther King Jr.

===Montgomery bus boycott, 1955===
{{Main|Montgomery bus boycott|Jim Crow laws#Public arena}}
[[File:Rosa Parks (detail).tiff|thumb|King (left) with civil rights activist [[Rosa Parks]] (right) in 1955]]
The [[Dexter Avenue Baptist Church]] was influential in the Montgomery African-American community. As the church's pastor, King became known for his oratorical preaching in Montgomery and the surrounding region.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Martin Luther King Jr. |url=http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1426 |access-date=January 23, 2022 |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |language=en |archive-date=January 23, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123161105/http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1426 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In March 1955, [[Claudette Colvin]]—a fifteen-year-old black schoolgirl in Montgomery—refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in violation of [[Jim Crow laws]], local laws in the Southern United States that enforced [[racial segregation]].{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=103}} Nine months later on December 1, 1955, [[Rosa Parks]] was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus.<ref>{{cite news |title=December 1, 1955: Rosa Parks arrested |date=March 11, 2003 |work=CNN |access-date=June 8, 2008 |url=https://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/10/sprj.80.1955.parks/ |archive-date=September 18, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070918150509/http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/10/sprj.80.1955.parks/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The two incidents led to the Montgomery bus boycott, which was urged and planned by [[Edgar Nixon]] and led by King.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Montgomery Bus Boycott|page=[https://archive.org/details/montgomerybusboy0000wals/page/24 24]|last=Walsh|first=Frank|publisher=Gareth Stevens|year= 2003|isbn= 0-8368-5375-X|url=https://archive.org/details/montgomerybusboy0000wals/page/24}}</ref> The other ministers asked him to take a leadership role because his relative newness to community leadership made it easier for him to speak out. King was hesitant but decided to do so if no one else wanted it.<ref name="Prize 1">Interview with Coretta Scott King, Episode 1, PBS TV series [[Eyes on the Prize]].</ref>

The boycott lasted for 385 days,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bA1azdRdD18C&pg=PA25|title=Ethical Leadership Through Transforming Justice|last=McMahon|first=Thomas F.|page=25|isbn=0-7618-2908-3|publisher=University Press of America|year=2004|access-date=May 29, 2020|archive-date=January 23, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240123124315/https://books.google.com/books?id=bA1azdRdD18C&pg=PA25#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> and the situation became so tense that King's house was bombed.<ref>{{cite book|title=Patterns of Conflict, Paths to Peace|last1=Fisk|first1=Larry J.|page=[https://archive.org/details/patternsofconfli0000unse/page/115 115]|publisher=Broadview Press|isbn=1-55111-154-3|first2=John|last2=Schellenberg|year=1999|url=https://archive.org/details/patternsofconfli0000unse/page/115}}</ref> King was arrested for traveling 30&nbsp;mph in a 25&nbsp;mph zone<ref>{{cite web |title=King arrested for speeding; MIA holds seven mass meetings |date=June 22, 2017 |url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/king-arrested-speeding-mia-holds-seven-mass-meetings |publisher=The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, Stanford University |access-date=November 10, 2022 |archive-date=November 10, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221110144232/https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/king-arrested-speeding-mia-holds-seven-mass-meetings |url-status=live }}</ref> and jailed, which overnight drew the attention of national media, and greatly increased King's public stature. The controversy ended when the United States District Court issued a ruling in ''[[Browder v. Gayle]]'' that prohibited racial segregation on Montgomery public buses.{{sfn|King|1992|p=9}}{{sfn|Jackson|2006|p=53}}<ref name="Prize 1"/>

King's role in the bus boycott transformed him into a national figure and the best-known spokesman of the civil rights movement.{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=52}}
[[File:Dexter Avenue Baptist.jpg|alt=|thumb|upright|King first rose to prominence in the civil rights movement while minister of [[Dexter Avenue Baptist Church]] in Montgomery, Alabama.]]