Montgomery bus boycott

{{Short description|1950s American protest against racial segregation}}
{{Use American English|date = January 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox civil conflict
| title = Montgomery bus boycott
| latitude = 
| longitude = 
| partof = the [[Civil Rights Movement]]
| image = Rosaparks bus.jpg
| caption = [[Rosa Parks]] on a Montgomery bus on December 21, 1956, the day Montgomery's public transportation system was legally integrated. Behind Parks is Nicholas C. Chriss, a [[United Press International|UPI]] reporter covering the event.
| date = {{Start and end date|1955|12|05|1956|12|20}}
| place = [[Montgomery, Alabama]], U.S.
| coordinates = 
| causes = * [[Racial segregation in the United States|Racial segregation]] on [[public transportation]]
* Successful 6-day [[Baton Rouge bus boycott]]
* [[Claudette Colvin]]'s arrest
* [[Rosa Parks]]' arrest
| status = 
| result = * ''[[Browder v. Gayle]]'' (1956)
* Emergence of [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]
* Inspired [[Tallahassee bus boycott]]
* Formation of [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]] (SCLC)
| concessions = 
| side1 = * [[Women's Political Council]] (WPC)
* [[Montgomery Improvement Association]] (MIA)
| side2 = * City Commission of Montgomery
* [[National City Lines]]
* Montgomery City Lines
* [[White Citizens Council|Montgomery Citizens Council]]
| leadfigures1 = '''WPC member'''
* [[Jo Ann Robinson]]
'''MIA members'''
* [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]
* [[Edgar Nixon|E.D. Nixon]]
* [[Rosa Parks]]
* [[Fred Gray (attorney)|Fred Gray]]
| leadfigures2 = '''City Commission'''
* W. A. Gayle, President of the Commission (mayor)
* Frank Parks, Commissioner
* Clyde Sellers, Police Commissioner
'''National City Lines'''
* Kenneth E. Totten, vice president
'''Montgomery City Lines'''
* J.H. Bagley, manager
* Jack Crenshaw, attorney
* [[James F. Blake]], bus driver
| map_type = 
| map_size = 
| map_caption = 
| sidebox = {{CRM in Alabama}}
}}

The '''Montgomery bus boycott''' was a political and social [[boycott|protest]] campaign against the policy of [[racial segregation]] on the public transit system of [[Montgomery, Alabama|Montgomery]], [[Alabama]]. It was a foundational event in the [[civil rights movement]] in the United States. The campaign lasted from December 5, 1955—the Monday after [[Rosa Parks]], an [[African-American]] woman, was arrested for her refusal to surrender her seat to a white person—to December 20, 1956, when the federal ruling ''[[Browder v. Gayle]]'' took effect, and led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws that segregated buses were unconstitutional.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis55.htm#1955mbb |title=Montgomery Bus Boycott |website=Civil Rights Movement Archive }}</ref>

==Background==
{{See also|History of civil rights in the United States|Civil rights movement (1865–1896)|Civil rights movement (1896–1954)}}
Before the bus boycott, [[Jim Crow laws]] mandated the [[racial segregation]] of the Montgomery Bus Line. As a result of this segregation, African Americans were not hired as drivers, were forced to ride in the back of the bus, and were frequently ordered to surrender their seats to [[white people]] even though black passengers made up 75% of the bus system's riders.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GQlvBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA807 |title=Race and Racism in the United States: An Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic |editor-first=Charles A. |editor-last=Gallagher |editor-first2=Cameron D. |editor-last2=Lippard |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2014 |page=807 |isbn=9781440803468 }}</ref> Many bus drivers treated their black passengers poorly beyond the law: African-Americans were assaulted, [[wikt:shortchange|<span title="given back less change than necessary>shortchanged</span>]], and left stranded after paying their fares.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EFI7tr9XK6EC&pg=PA396 |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History, Volume 1 |editor-first=Bonnie G. |editor-last=Smith |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008 |page=396 |isbn=9780195148909 }}</ref>

The year before the bus boycott began, the [[The Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] decided unanimously, in the case of ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'', that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. The reaction by the white population of the Deep South was "noisy and stubborn".<ref>{{cite book |last1=McCloskey |first1=Robert G. |last2=Levinson |first2=Sanford |title=''The American Supreme Court'' |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |location=Chicago |year=2010 |edition=5th |isbn=978-0-226-55686-4 |page=144}}</ref> Discontented white southerners joined the [[Citizens' Councils|White Citizens' Council]] as a result of the decision.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lipsitz |first=George |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/708094574 |title=How racism takes place |date=2011 |publisher=Temple University Press |isbn=978-1-4399-0257-8 |location=Philadelphia |oclc=708094574}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |title=The Social-Psychological Origins of the Montgomery Bus Boycott: Social Interaction and Humiliation in the Emergence of Social Movements |journal=Mobilization: An International Quarterly |year=2013 |volume=18 |doi=10.17813/maiq.18.2.83123352476r2x82 |last1=Shultziner |first1=Doron |issue=2 |pages=117–142}}</ref>

Although it is often framed as the start of the [[civil rights movement]], the boycott occurred at the end of many black communities' struggles in the South to protect black women, such as [[Recy Taylor]], from racial violence.<ref>{{Cite book|last=McGuire|first=Danielle L.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/503042152|title=At the dark end of the street: black women, rape, and resistance- a new history of the civil rights movement from Rosa Parks to the rise of black power|date=2010|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|isbn=978-0-307-26906-5|edition=1st|location=New York|pages=xviii|oclc=503042152}}</ref> The boycott also took place within a larger statewide and national movement for civil rights, including court cases such as ''[[Morgan v. Virginia]]'', the earlier [[Baton Rouge bus boycott]], and the arrest of [[Claudette Colvin]], among others, for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus.

=== Previous transport and bus boycotts in the United States ===
{{See also|Transport and bus boycotts in the United States}}
In 1841 [[Frederick Douglass]] and his friend [[James N. Buffum]] entered a train car reserved for white passengers in Lynn, Massachusetts, when the conductor ordered them to leave the car, they refused. Following the action, widespread organizing led Congress to approve the [[Civil Rights Act of 1875]] which grant equal rights to Black citizens in public accommodations. In 1883 the Supreme Court overturned this victory declaring it unconstitutional.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Transportation Protests: 1841 - 1992|url=https://www.civilrightsteaching.org/desegregation/transportation-protests|access-date=2021-08-24|website=Civil Rights Teaching|language=en-US}}</ref>

=== Rape of Recy Taylor ===
{{Main|Recy Taylor}}
On September 3, 1944, [[Recy Taylor]], a black woman, was raped by six white men in [[Abbeville, Alabama]].<ref name=mcguire>{{Cite book |last=McGuire |first=Danielle L. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/503042152 |title=At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance{{emdash}}A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power |date=2010 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |isbn=978-0-307-26906-5 |edition=1st |location=New York |oclc=503042152}}</ref>{{rp|xv–xvii}} After investigating her case, [[Rosa Parks]]{{emdash}}along with [[E. D. Nixon]], [[Rufus Lewis (activist)|Rufus A. Lewis]], and E. G. Jackson{{emdash}}organized a defense for Taylor in Montgomery. They mobilized nationwide support from labor unions, African-American organizations, and women's groups to form the [[The Committee for Equal Justice|Alabama Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor]].<ref name=mcguire />{{rp|15}} Although they did not succeed in obtaining justice in court for Taylor, the mobilization of the black community in Alabama set up social and political networks that enabled the success of the Montgomery bus boycott a decade later.<ref name=mcguire />{{rp|46–47}}

===''Morgan v. Virginia'' decision===
{{Main|Morgan v. Virginia}}

The [[NAACP|National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] (NAACP) had accepted and litigated other cases, including that of [[Irene Morgan]] in 1946, which resulted in a victory in the Supreme Court on the grounds that segregated interstate bus lines violated the [[Commerce Clause]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/highwayhistory/road/s19.cfm |title=The Road to Civil Rights: Journey of Reconciliation |author=''[[United States Department of Transportation]]'' ''[[Federal Highway Administration]]'' |publisher=dot.gov |date=October 17, 2013}}</ref> That victory, however, overturned state segregation laws only insofar as they applied to travel in interstate commerce, such as interstate bus travel,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_morgan.html |title=The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow: MORGAN v. Virginia (1946)  |author=Public Broadcasting Service |publisher=pbs.org |year=2002 |author-link=Public Broadcasting Service}}</ref> and Southern bus companies immediately circumvented the ''Morgan'' ruling by instituting their own [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow regulations]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pl409yBEjfsC&pg=PA103 |title=Justice Older Than the Law: The Life of Dovey Johnson Roundtree |first1=Katie |last1=McCabe |first2=Dovey Johnson |last2=Roundtree |publisher=[[University Press of Mississippi]] |isbn=978-1617031212 |page=103 |year=2009}}</ref> Further incidents continued to take place in Montgomery, including the arrest of [[Lillie Mae Bradford]] for disorderly conduct in May 1951 for allegedly refusing to leave the white passengers' section until the bus driver amended an incorrect charge on her transfer ticket.<ref name=borger>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/apr/04/usa.julianborger |title=Civil rights heroes may get pardons |first=Julian |last=Borger |date=April 3, 2006 |access-date=March 23, 2017 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>

===Baton Rouge bus boycott===
{{Main|Baton Rouge bus boycott}}

On February 25, 1953, the [[Baton Rouge, Louisiana|Baton Rouge]], [[Louisiana]], city-parish council passed Ordinance 222 after the city saw protesting from African Americans when the council raised the city's bus fares.<ref name="LSU">{{cite web |url=http://www.lib.lsu.edu/sites/all/files/sc/exhibits/e-exhibits/boycott/index.html |title=Baton Rouge Bus Boycott |author=Dr. Mary Price |author2=Louisiana State University |publisher=lsu.edu |date=December 1, 2013 |author2-link=Louisiana State University}}</ref> The ordinance abolished race-based reserved seating requirements and allowed the admission of African Americans in the front sections of city buses if there were no white passengers present, but it still required African Americans to enter from the rear rather than the front of the buses.<ref name="Swarthmore">{{cite web |url=http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/african-american-passengers-boycott-segregated-buses-baton-rouge-1953 |title=African American passengers boycott segregated buses in Baton Rouge, 1953 |author=Julio Alicea |author2=Swarthmore College |publisher=swarthmore.edu |date=December 9, 2010 |author2-link=Swarthmore College}}</ref> However, the ordinance was largely unenforced by the city bus drivers. The drivers later went on strike after city authorities refused to arrest Rev. [[T. J. Jemison]] for sitting in a front row.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oLjYbzkGWk8C&pg=PA66 |title=The Jim Crow Encyclopedia: Greenwood Milestones in African-American History |author=Nikki L. M. Brown, Barry M. Stentiford |isbn=978-0313341816 |page=66 |year=2008|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic }}</ref> Four days after the strike began, [[Attorney General of Louisiana|Louisiana Attorney General]] and former [[Baton Rouge]] mayor [[Fred S. LeBlanc]] declared the ordinance unconstitutional under Louisiana state law.<ref name="Swarthmore"/> This led Rev. Jemison to organize what historians believe to be the first bus boycott of the civil rights movement.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1304163 |title=The First Civil Rights Bus Boycott |author=Debbie Elliott |author2=National Public Radio |publisher=NPR |date=June 19, 2003 |author2-link=National Public Radio}}</ref> The boycott ended after eight days when an agreement was reached to only retain the first two front and back rows as racially reserved seating.<ref name="LSU"/>

===Arrest of Claudette Colvin===
{{Main|Claudette Colvin}}

Black activists had begun to build a case to challenge state bus segregation laws around the arrest of 15-year-old [[Claudette Colvin]], a student at [[Booker T. Washington School (Montgomery, Alabama)|Booker T. Washington High School]] in Montgomery. On March 2, 1955, Colvin was handcuffed, arrested, and forcibly removed from a public bus when she refused to give up her seat to a white man. At the time, Colvin was an active member in the [[NAACP Youth Council]], where Rosa Parks was an advisor.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://beck.library.emory.edu/southernchanges/article.php?id=sc07-5_006 |title=The Origins of the Montgomery Bus Boycott |first=David J. |last=Garrow |journal=[[Southern Regional Council|Journal of the Southern Regional Council]] |volume=7 |issue=5 |page=24 |publisher=[[Emory University]] |year=1985 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100714210519/http://beck.library.emory.edu/southernchanges/article.php?id=sc07-5_006 |archive-date=July 14, 2010}}</ref> Colvin's legal case formed the core of ''[[Browder v. Gayle]]'', which ended the Montgomery bus boycott when the Supreme Court ruled on it in December 1956.

=== Murder of Emmett Till; trial and acquittal of the accused ===
{{Main|Emmett Till}}
In August 1955, four months before Parks's refusal to give up a seat on the bus that led to the Montgomery bus boycott, a 14-year-old African American from Chicago named [[Emmett Till]] was murdered by two white men, John W. Milam and Roy Bryant. The picture of his brutally beaten body in the open-casket funeral that his mother requested was widely publicized, specifically by the weekly newspaper ''Jet'', which circulated in much of the black community in the North. His accused killers were acquitted the following month. There was massive outrage at this verdict both domestically and internationally. In an interview on January 24, 1956, published in ''Look'' magazine, the two men admitted to murdering Till.<ref>{{cite book |title=Getting Away With Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case |last=Crowe, Chris. |date=2003 |publisher=Phyllis Fogelman Books |isbn=0803728042 |location=New York |oclc=49699347}}</ref>

===''Keys v. Carolina Coach Co.'' decision===
{{Main|Keys v. Carolina Coach Co.}}

In November 1955, three weeks before Parks's defiance of Jim Crow laws in Montgomery, the [[Interstate Commerce Commission]] (ICC), in response to a complaint filed by [[Women's Army Corps]] Private Sarah Keys, closed the legal loophole left by the ''Morgan'' ruling in a landmark case known as ''[[Keys v. Carolina Coach Co.]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://lcrm.lib.unc.edu/blog/index.php/2012/11/07/remembering-sarah-keys/ |title=Remembering Sarah Keys |first=Alison |last=Shay |author2=University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |publisher=unc.edu |date=November 7, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203000309/https://lcrm.lib.unc.edu/blog/index.php/2012/11/07/remembering-sarah-keys/ |archive-date=December 3, 2013 |author2-link=University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill}}</ref> The ICC prohibited individual carriers from imposing their own segregation rules on interstate travelers, declaring that to do so was a violation of the anti-discrimination provision of the [[Interstate Commerce Act]]. However, neither the Supreme Court's ''Morgan'' ruling nor the ICC's ''Keys'' ruling addressed the matter of Jim Crow travel within the individual states.<ref>{{cite web |title=Jim Crow Barred in Interstate Bus |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/national/race/060446race-ra.html |access-date=January 22, 2021 |website=archive.nytimes.com}}</ref>

==History==
Under the system of segregation used on Montgomery buses, the ten front seats were reserved for white people at all times. The ten back seats were supposed to be reserved for black people at all times. The middle section of the bus consisted of sixteen unreserved seats for white and black people on a segregated basis.<ref>''[[Browder v. Gayle]]'', 142 F. Supp. 707 (1956)</ref> White people filled the middle seats from the front to back, and black people filled seats from the back to front until the bus was full. If other black people boarded the bus, they were required to stand. If another white person boarded the bus, then everyone in the black row nearest the front had to get up and stand so that a new row for white people could be created; it was illegal for white and black people to sit next to each other. When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a white person, she was sitting in the first row of the middle section.<ref>{{cite web|title=Smithsonian Source|url=http://www.smithsoniansource.org/display/primarysource/viewdetails.aspx?PrimarySourceId=1203 |website=www.smithsoniansource.org}}</ref>

Often when boarding the buses, black people were required to pay at the front, get off, and reenter the bus through a separate door at the back.<ref>Garrow (1986) p. 13. David Garrow wrote, "Mrs. [Rosa] Parks once told ... how she had been physically thrown off a bus some ten years earlier when, after paying her fare at the front of the bus, she had refused to get off and reenter by the back door -- a custom often inflicted on black riders."</ref> Occasionally, bus drivers would drive away before black passengers were able to reboard.<ref>[[William J. Cooper, Jr.]], Thomas E. Terrill, ''The American South: A History'', Volume II, 4 ed., Rowman and Littlefield, 2009, p. 730.</ref> [[National City Lines]] owned the Montgomery Bus Line at the time of the Montgomery bus boycott.<ref>The company was sold to the City of Montgomery in 1974 and become the [[Montgomery Area Transit System]]</ref> Under the leadership of [[Walter Reuther]], the [[United Auto Workers]] donated almost $5,000 ({{Inflation|US|5000|1955|fmt=eq|r=-3}}) to the boycott's organizing committee.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Boyle|first=Kevin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mt4ZDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA121 |title=The UAW and the Heyday of American Liberalism, 1945–1968|date=November 21, 1995|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-1-5017-1327-9|pages=121|language=en}}</ref>

===Rosa Parks===
{{Main|Rosa Parks}}
[[File:Rosa Parks being fingerprinted by Deputy Sheriff D.H. Lackey after being arrested for refusing to give up her seat for a white passenger on a segregated municipal bus in Montgomery, Alabama.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Rosa Parks being fingerprinted by Deputy Sheriff D.H. Lackey after her arrest for boycotting public transportation]]
[[Rosa Parks]] (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was a [[Sewing|seamstress]] by profession; she was also the secretary for the Montgomery chapter of the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People|NAACP]]. Twelve years before her history-making arrest, Parks was stopped from boarding a city bus by driver [[James F. Blake]], who ordered her to board at the rear door and then drove off without her. Parks vowed never again to ride a bus driven by Blake. As a member of the NAACP, Parks was an investigator assigned to cases of sexual assault. In 1945, she was sent to [[Abbeville, Alabama]], to investigate the gang rape of [[Recy Taylor]]. The protest that arose around the Taylor case was the first instance of a nationwide civil rights protest, and it laid the groundwork for the Montgomery bus boycott.<ref>{{cite book|last=McGuire|first=Danielle L.|title=At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance- A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power|year=2010|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-0-307-26906-5|page=8 and 39}}</ref>

[[File:Rosaparks busdiagram.jpg|thumb|A diagram showing where Rosa Parks sat in the unreserved section at the time of her arrest]]
In 1955, Parks completed a course in "Race Relations" at the [[Highlander Research and Education Center|Highlander Folk School]] in Tennessee, where [[nonviolent]] [[civil disobedience]] had been discussed as a tactic. On December 1, 1955, Parks was sitting in the foremost row in which black people could sit (in the middle section). When a white man boarded the bus, the bus driver told everyone in her row to move back. At that moment, Parks realized that she was again on a bus driven by Blake. While all of the other black people in her row complied, Parks refused, and she was arrested<ref>{{cite web |title=Rosa Park's arrest report |date=December 1, 1955 |url=http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/rosa_parks_arrest_report.pdf |access-date=March 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151022072358/http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/rosa_parks_arrest_report.pdf |archive-date=October 22, 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> for failing to obey the driver's seat assignments, as city ordinances did not explicitly mandate segregation but did give the bus driver authority to assign seats. Found guilty on December 5,<ref>[http://ea.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=0303225-00 "Parks, Rosa Louise." Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier Online]{{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=Balon Greyjoy |fix-attempted=yes }} (accessed May 8, 2009).</ref> Parks was fined $10 plus a court cost of $4''<ref name="globe">{{cite news|url=http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/10/25/rosa_parks_civil_rights_icon_dead_at_92/?page=3 |title=Rosa Parks, civil rights icon, dead at 92 - The Boston Globe |newspaper=Boston.com |date=October 25, 2005 |access-date=September 28, 2012|last1=Feeney |first1=Mark }}</ref>'' (combined total {{Inflation|US|14|1955|fmt=eq}}), and she appealed.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Digital History|url=https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=3&psid=1142|access-date=January 22, 2021|website=www.digitalhistory.uh.edu}}</ref>  This movement also sparked riots leading up to the [[1956 Sugar Bowl]].<ref>{{Cite news | last = Thamel | first = Pete |author-link=Pete Thamel | title = Grier Integrated a Game and Earned the World's Respect | newspaper = New York Times | date = 2006-01-01 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/sports/ncaafootball/01grier.html | access-date=2009-04-15 }}</ref>

===E. D. Nixon===
Some action against segregation had been in the works for some time before Parks' arrest, under the leadership of [[Edgar Nixon|E. D. Nixon]], president of the local [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People|NAACP]] chapter and a member of the [[Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters]]. Nixon intended that her arrest be a [[Test case (law)|test case]] to allow Montgomery's black citizens to challenge segregation on the city's public buses. With this goal, community leaders had been waiting for the right person to be arrested, a person who would anger the black community into action, who would agree to test the segregation laws in court, and who, most importantly, was "above reproach". When Colvin was arrested in March 1955, Nixon thought he had found the perfect person, but the teenager turned out to be pregnant. Nixon later explained, "I had to be sure that I had somebody I could win with." Parks was a good candidate because of her employment and marital status, along with her good standing in the community.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Jackson|first=Joelle|date=2011-05-31|title=E.D. Nixon (1899-1987) •|url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/nixon-e-d-nixon-1899-1987/|access-date=2021-08-24|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1987-02-27|title=E.D. Nixon, leader in civil rights, dies|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/27/obituaries/ed-nixon-leader-in-civil-rights-dies.html|access-date=2021-08-24|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Between Parks' arrest and trial, Nixon organized a meeting of local ministers at Martin Luther King Jr.'s church. Though Nixon could not attend the meeting because of his work schedule, he arranged that no election of a leader for the proposed boycott would take place until his return. When he returned, he caucused with [[Ralph Abernathy]] and Rev. E.N. French to name the association to lead the boycott to the city (they selected the "[[Montgomery Improvement Association]]", "MIA"), and they selected King (Nixon's choice) to lead the boycott. Nixon wanted King to lead the boycott because the young minister was new to Montgomery and the city fathers had not had time to intimidate him. At a subsequent, larger meeting of ministers, Nixon's agenda was threatened by the clergymen's reluctance to support the campaign. Nixon was indignant, pointing out that their poor congregations worked to put money into the collection plates so these ministers could live well, and when those congregations needed the clergy to stand up for them, those comfortable ministers refused to do so.  Nixon threatened to reveal the ministers' cowardice to the black community, and King spoke up, denying he was afraid to support the boycott. King agreed to lead the MIA, and Nixon was elected its treasurer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/rosa-parks-in-her-own-words/about-this-exhibition/early-life-and-activism/activist-e-d-nixon/|title = Activist e. D. Nixon &#124; Early Life and Activism &#124; Explore &#124; Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words &#124; Exhibitions at the Library of Congress &#124; Library of Congress|website = [[Library of Congress]]}}</ref>

===Boycott===
[[Image:Rosa Parks Bus.jpg|thumb|The [[National City Lines]] bus, No. 2857, on which Rosa Parks rode before she was arrested (a [[GM "old-look" transit bus]], serial number 1132), is now on exhibit at the [[Henry Ford Museum]].]]
On the night of Parks' arrest, the [[Women's Political Council]], led by [[Jo Ann Robinson]], printed and circulated a flyer throughout Montgomery's black community that read as follows:

<blockquote>Another woman has been arrested and thrown in jail because she refused to get up out of her seat on the bus for a white person to sit down. It is the second time since the [[Claudette Colvin]] case that a Negro woman has been arrested for the same thing. This has to be stopped. Negroes have rights too, for if Negroes did not ride the buses, they could not operate. Three-fourths of the riders are Negro, yet we are arrested, or have to stand over empty seats. If we do not do something to stop these arrests, they will continue. The next time it may be you, or your daughter, or mother. This woman's case will come up on Monday. We are, therefore, asking every Negro to stay off the buses Monday in protest of the arrest and trial. Don't ride the buses to work, to town, to school, or anywhere on Monday. You can afford to stay out of school for one day if you have no other way to go except by bus. You can also afford to stay out of town for one day. If you work, take a cab, or walk. But please, children and grown-ups, don't ride the bus at all on Monday. Please stay off all buses Monday.<ref name="globe"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/documentsentry/leaflet_dont_ride_the_bus_come_to_a_mass_meeting_on_5_december/ |title=Leaflet, "Don't Ride the Bus", Come to a Mass Meeting on 5 December |publisher=Mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu |access-date=2014-06-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402155441/http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/documentsentry/leaflet_dont_ride_the_bus_come_to_a_mass_meeting_on_5_december/ |archive-date=2015-04-02 |url-status=dead }}</ref></blockquote>

The next morning there was a meeting led by the new Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) head, King, where a group of 16 to 18 people gathered at the [[AME Zion|Mt. Zion Church]] to discuss boycott strategies. At that time [[Rosa Parks]] was introduced but not asked to speak, despite a standing ovation and calls from the crowd for her to speak; she asked someone if she should say something, but they replied, "Why, you've said enough."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gwVbfvfYEZkC&q=rosa+parks+%22You've+said+enough%22&pg=PA408 |title=Civil Rights History from the Ground Up: Local Struggles, a National Movement - Google Books |access-date=June 5, 2014|isbn=9780820338651 |year=2011 |last1=Crosby |first1=Emilye |publisher=University of Georgia Press }}</ref> A citywide boycott of public transit was proposed, with three demands: 1) courteous treatment by bus operators, 2) passengers seated on a first-come, first-served basis, with black people seated in the back half and white people seated in the front half, and 3) black people would be employed as bus operators on routes predominately taken by black people.<ref>{{Cite web|title=African Americans boycott buses for integration in Montgomery, Alabama, U.S., 1955-1956 {{!}} Global Nonviolent Action Database|url=https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/african-americans-boycott-buses-integration-montgomery-alabama-us-1955-1956|access-date=January 23, 2021|website=nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu}}</ref>

This demand was a compromise for the leaders of the boycott, who believed that the city of Montgomery would be more likely to accept it rather than a demand for full integration of the buses. In this respect, the MIA leaders followed the pattern of 1950s boycott campaigns in the [[Deep South]], including the successful boycott a few years earlier of service stations in [[Mississippi]] for refusing to provide restrooms for Black people. The organizer of that campaign, [[T. R. M. Howard]] of the [[Regional Council of Negro Leadership]], had spoken on the lynching of [[Emmett Till]] as King's guest at the [[Dexter Avenue Baptist Church]] only four days before Parks's arrest. Parks was in the audience and later said that Emmett Till was on her mind when she refused to give up her seat.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Beito|first1=David T.|title=Black Maverick: T.R.M. Howard's Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power|last2=Beito|first2=Linda Royster|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=2009|location=Urbana|pages=139}}</ref>

The MIA's demand for a fixed dividing line was to be supplemented by a requirement that all bus passengers receive courteous treatment by bus operators, be seated on a first-come, first-served basis, and that Black people be employed as bus drivers.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jakoubek|first=Robert|title=Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil Rights Leader|year=1989|publisher=Chelsea House Publishers|location=Philadelphia|page=49}}</ref> The proposal was passed, and the boycott was to commence the following Monday. To publicize the impending boycott it was advertised at black churches throughout Montgomery the following Sunday.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=University|first1=© Stanford|last2=Stanford|last3=California 94305|date=April 26, 2017|title=Montgomery Bus Boycott|url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/montgomery-bus-boycott|access-date=January 23, 2021|website=The Martin Luther King Jr., Research and Education Institute|language=en}}</ref>

On Saturday, December 3, it was evident that the black community would support the boycott, and very few Black people rode the buses that day. On December 5, a mass meeting was held at the [[Holt Street Baptist Church]] to determine if the protest would continue.<ref name="Phibbs">{{cite book | last = Phibbs | first = Cheryl Fisher | title = The Montgomery Bus Boycott: A History and Reference Guide | publisher = ABC-CLIO | year = 2009 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=HKPtlNXNILsC&pg=PP1 | pages = 19| isbn = 9780313358876 }}</ref>  Given twenty minutes notice, King gave a speech<ref>{{cite web |author=Martin Luther King |publisher=Stanford University |title=Address to the first Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) Mass Meeting |url=http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/documentsentry/the_addres_to_the_first_montgomery_improvement_association_mia_mass_meeting/ |access-date=December 3, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131206202721/http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/documentsentry/the_addres_to_the_first_montgomery_improvement_association_mia_mass_meeting/ |archive-date=December 6, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> asking for a bus boycott and attendees enthusiastically agreed. Starting December 7, [[J Edgar Hoover|J Edgar Hoover's]] [[FBI]] noted the "agitation among negroes" and tried to find "derogatory information" about King.<ref>{{cite web |title=To J.Edgar Hoover from Special Agent in Charge |publisher=Stanford University |url=http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/documentsentry/to_j_edgar_hoover_from_special_agent_in_charge/ |access-date=December 3, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207065906/http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/documentsentry/to_j_edgar_hoover_from_special_agent_in_charge/ |archive-date=December 7, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The boycott proved extremely effective, with enough riders lost to the city transit system to cause serious economic distress. Martin Luther King later wrote, "[a] miracle had taken place." Instead of riding buses, boycotters organized a system of carpools, with car owners volunteering their vehicles or themselves driving people to various destinations. Some white housewives also drove their black domestic servants to work. When the city pressured local insurance companies to stop insuring cars used in the carpools, the boycott leaders arranged policies at [[Lloyd's of London]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6gbQHxb_P0QC&pg=RA2-PA360 |title=Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present |last=Finkleman |first=Paul |page=360 |year=2009 |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195167795 }}</ref>

Black [[taxicab|taxi]] drivers charged ten cents per ride, a fare equal to the cost to ride the bus, in support of the boycott.  When word of this reached city officials on December 8, the order went out to fine any cab driver who charged a rider less than 45 cents. In addition to using private [[motor vehicles]], some people used non-motorized means to get around, such as cycling, walking, or even riding mules or driving horse-drawn buggies. Some people also hitchhiked. During rush hours, sidewalks were often crowded. As the buses received few, if any, passengers, their officials asked the City Commission to allow stopping service to black communities.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/article_overview.htm |title=Montgomery Bus Boycott: The story of Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement |publisher=Montgomeryboycott.com |access-date=September 28, 2012}}</ref>  Across the nation, black churches raised money to support the boycott and collected new and slightly used shoes to replace the tattered footwear of Montgomery's black citizens, many of whom walked everywhere rather than ride the buses and submit to [[Jim Crow law]]s.{{citation needed|date=November 2014}}

In response, opposing whites swelled the ranks of the [[Citizens' Councils|White Citizens' Council]], the membership of which doubled during the course of the boycott. The councils sometimes resorted to violence: King's and Abernathy's houses were [[Firebombing|firebombed]], as were four black Baptist churches. Boycotters were often physically attacked. After the attack at King's house, he gave a speech to the 300 angry African Americans who had gathered outside. He said:

{{Blockquote|If you have weapons, take them home; if you do not have them, please do not seek to get them. We cannot solve this problem through retaliatory violence. We must meet violence with nonviolence. Remember the words of Jesus: "He who lives by the sword will perish by the sword". We must love our white brothers, no matter what they do to us. We must make them know that we love them. Jesus still cries out in words that echo across the centuries: "Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; pray for them that despitefully use you". This is what we must live by. We must meet hate with love. Remember, if I am stopped, this movement will not stop, because God is with the movement. Go home with this glowing faith and this radiant assurance.<ref>{{cite book|last=Darby|first=Jean|title=Martin Luther King, Jr.|year=1990|publisher=Lerner Publishing Group|location=Minneapolis|isbn=0-8225-4902-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/martinlutherking00darb/page/41 41–42]|url=https://archive.org/details/martinlutherking00darb/page/41}}</ref>}}

King and 88 other boycott leaders and carpool drivers were indicted<ref>{{cite web|url=http://studythepast.com/civilrights/cases/montgomery_bus_boycott.pdf |title=Montgomery, Ala., Bus Boycott |access-date=September 28, 2012}}</ref> for conspiring to interfere with a business under a 1921 ordinance.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/state-alabama-v-m-l-king-jr-nos-7399-and-9593|title=State of Alabama v. M. L. King, Jr., Nos. 7399 and 9593 |date=July 7, 2017 |publisher=kinginstitute.stanford.edu |access-date=December 4, 2019 }}</ref> Rather than wait to be arrested, they turned themselves in as an act of defiance.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2016-02-22|title=Remembering the Montgomery Bus Boycott|url=https://uaw.org/remembering-the-montgomery-bus-boycott/|access-date=2021-05-07|website=UAW|language=en-US}}</ref>

King was ordered to pay a $500 fine or serve 386 days in jail. He ended up spending two weeks in jail. The move backfired by bringing national attention to the protest. King commented on the arrest by saying: "I was proud of my crime. It was the crime of joining my people in a nonviolent protest against injustice."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://teacher.scholastic.com/researchtools/articlearchives/honormlk/mlklife1.htm |title=The Life and Words of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Part 1 of 2) &#124; Scholastic.com |publisher=Teacher.scholastic.com |access-date=September 28, 2012}}</ref>

Also important during the bus boycott were grassroots activist groups that helped to catalyze both fund-raising and morale. Groups such as the [[Georgia Gilmore|Club from Nowhere]] helped to sustain the boycott by finding new ways of raising money and offering support to boycott participants.<ref>{{cite book|last=McGuire|first=Danielle|title=At the Dark End of the Stree|year=2010|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|location=New York|isbn=978-0-307-26906-5|pages=96–97}}</ref>  Many members of these organizations were women and their contributions to the effort have been described by some as essential to the success of the bus boycott.<ref>{{cite web|title= Interview with Georgia Gilmore, conducted by Blackside, Inc. on February 17, 1986, for Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years (1954-1965)|url= http://digital.wustl.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=eop;cc=eop;rgn=main;view=text;idno=gil0015.0383.041|publisher= Washington University Libraries, Film and Media Archive, Henry Hampton Collection |access-date=November 26, 2011|author=Blackside, Inc.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=McGuire|first=Danielle|title=At the Dark End of the Street|url=https://archive.org/details/atdarkendofstree0000mcgu|url-access=registration|year=2010|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|location=New York|isbn=978-0-307-26906-5}}{{page needed|date=November 2014}}</ref>

===Victory===
[[File:381 days 01.jpg|thumb|[[Smithsonian Institution]] traveling exhibition<ref name="381 Days" /> "381 Days: The Montgomery Bus Boycott" at the [[Washington State History Museum]]]]

Pressure increased across the country. The related civil suit was heard in federal district court and, on June 5, 1956, the court ruled in ''[[Browder v. Gayle]]'' (1956) that Alabama's racial segregation laws for buses were unconstitutional.<ref>{{cite web |title=Browder v. Gayle, 142 F. Supp. 707 (M.D. Ala. 1956) |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/142/707/2263463/ |website=Justia US law |access-date=June 23, 2020}}</ref> As the state appealed the decision, the boycott continued. The case moved on to the [[United States Supreme Court]]. On November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court upheld the district court's ruling.<ref>{{cite web |title=Gayle v. Browder |url=https://www.oyez.org/cases/1956/342 |website=Oyez |access-date=June 27, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Browder v. Gayle, 352 U.S. 903 |url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/browder-v-gayle-352-us-903 |website=[[Stanford University]] |date=April 24, 2017 |access-date=January 18, 2021}}</ref>

The bus boycott officially ended on December 20, 1956, after 382<ref>{{cite book|title=Once We Walked: A Calendar Commemorating the 382 Days of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955-56|year=2005|publisher=NewSouth Books|location=Montgomery|pages=31}}</ref> days. The Montgomery bus boycott resounded far beyond the desegregation of public buses. It stimulated activism and participation from the South in the national '''Civil Rights Movement''' and gave King national attention as a rising leader.<ref name="381 Days">{{cite web|title=381 Days: The Montgomery Bus Boycott Story |url=http://www.sites.si.edu/exhibitions/exhibits/381/main.htm |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |website=sites.si.edu |access-date=March 31, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110316172049/http://www.sites.si.edu/exhibitions/exhibits/381/main.htm |archive-date=March 16, 2011}}</ref><ref>Wright, H. R: ''The Birth of the Montgomery Bus Boycott'', page 123. Charro Book Co., Inc., 1991. {{ISBN|0-9629468-0-X}}</ref>

== Aftermath ==
White backlash against the court victory was quick, brutal, and, in the short term, effective.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Doug |last1=McAdam |s2cid=62832487 |date=December 1983 |title=Tactical Innovation and the Pace of Insurgency |journal=American Sociological Review |volume=48 |issue=6 |pages=735–54 |jstor=2095322|doi=10.2307/2095322 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=J. Mills |last=Thornton |title=Dividing Lines:Municipal Politics and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma |publisher=University of Alabama Press |year=2006 |pages=111–2}}</ref>  Two days after the inauguration of desegregated seating, someone fired a shotgun through the front door of Martin Luther King's home. A day later, on Christmas Eve, white men attacked a black teenager as she exited a bus. Four days after that, two buses were fired upon by snipers. In one sniper incident, a pregnant woman was shot in both legs. On January 10, 1957, bombs destroyed five black churches and the home of Reverend [[Robert Graetz|Robert S. Graetz]], one of the few white Montgomerians who had publicly sided with the MIA.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/overview/|title=Overview|website=www.montgomeryboycott.com|access-date=February 13, 2015|archive-date=February 6, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160206213222/http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/overview/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="udayton999">{{cite journal |first1=Randall |last1=Kennedy |date=April 1989 |title=Martin Luther King's Constitution: A Legal History of the Montgomery Bus Boycott |journal=The Yale Law Journal |volume=98 |issue=6 |pages=999–1067 |jstor=796572|doi=10.2307/796572 |url=https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/ylj/vol98/iss6/1 }}</ref>

The City suspended bus service for several weeks on account of the violence. According to legal historian [[Randall Kennedy]], "When the violence subsided and service was restored, many black Montgomerians enjoyed their newly recognized right only abstractly ... In practically every other setting, Montgomery remained overwhelmingly segregated ..."<ref name="udayton999"/> On January 23, a group of [[Ku Klux Klan|Klansmen]] (who would later be charged for the bombings) [[Lynching in the United States|lynched]] a black man, [[Willie Edwards]], on the pretext that he was dating a white woman.<ref>{{cite book |first=J. Mills |last=Thornton |title=Dividing Lines:Municipal Politics and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma |publisher=University of Alabama Press |year=2006 |page=94}}</ref>

The city's elite moved to strengthen segregation in other areas, and in March 1957 passed an ordinance making it "unlawful for white and colored persons to play together, or, in company with each other ... in any game of cards, dice, dominoes, checkers, pool, billiards, softball, basketball, baseball, football, golf, track, and at swimming pools, beaches, lakes or ponds or any other game or games or athletic contests, either indoors or outdoors."<ref name="udayton999"/>

Later in the year, Montgomery police charged seven [[Ku Klux Klan|Klansmen]] with the bombings, but all of the defendants were acquitted.  About the same time, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled against Martin Luther King's appeal of his "illegal boycott" conviction.<ref>{{cite book |first=Taylor |last=Branch |author-link=Taylor Branch |title=Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |year=1988 |page=[https://archive.org/details/partingwatersame01bran/page/202 202]|title-link=Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963 }}</ref>  Rosa Parks left Montgomery due to death threats and employment blacklisting.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeanne-theoharis/rosa-parks-100th-birthday_b_2614678.html |first=Jeanne |last=Theoharis |title=10 Things You Don't Know About Rosa Parks |work=Huffington Post |date=February 4, 2013}}</ref>  According to [[Charles Silberman]], "by 1963, most Negroes in Montgomery had returned to the old custom of riding in the back of the bus."<ref>{{cite book |first=Charles E. |last=Silberman |title=Crisis in Black and White |url=https://archive.org/details/crisisinblackwh000silb |url-access=registration |publisher=Random House |year=1964 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/crisisinblackwh000silb/page/141 141]–2}}</ref>

[[The National Memorial for Peace and Justice]] contains, among other things, a sculpture "dedicated to the women who sustained the Montgomery Bus Boycott", by [[Dana King]], to help illustrate the civil rights period.<ref name=inside>{{cite news|url=https://www.birminghamtimes.com/2018/04/whats-inside-montgomerys-national-peace-museum-and-slave-memorial-opening-april-26/|title=What's inside Montgomery's national peace and slave memorial museum opening April 26|first=Barnett|last=Wright|access-date=April 21, 2018|date=April 19, 2018|newspaper=[[Birmingham Times]]}}</ref> The memorial opened in downtown [[Montgomery, Alabama]] on April 26, 2018.<ref name=EJI>{{Cite web|url=https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/memorial|title=The National Memorial for Peace and Justice|website=Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/25/us/lynching-memorial-alabama.html|title=A Lynching Memorial Is Opening. The Country Has Never Seen Anything Like It.|first=Campbell|last=Robertson|date=April 25, 2018|work=[[The New York Times]]|language=en}}</ref>

==Participants==

===People===
{{div col}}
* [[Ralph Abernathy]]
* [[Hugo Black]]
* [[James F. Blake]]
* [[Aurelia Browder]]
* [[Mary Fair Burks]]
* [[Johnnie Carr]]
* [[Claudette Colvin]]
* [[Clifford Durr]]
* [[Mildred Fahrni]]<ref name="Pitsula (2003)">{{cite journal|last1=Pitsula|first1=James M.|title=Reviewed Work: No Plaster Saint: The Life of Mildred Osterhout Fahrni by Nancy Knickerbocker|journal=Labour / Le Travail|date=Spring 2003|volume= 51|pages=282–284|jstor=25149348|publisher=Canadian Committee on Labour History and Athabasca University Press|location=Vancouver, Canada|doi=10.2307/25149348}}</ref>
* [[Georgia Gilmore]]
* [[Robert Graetz]]
* [[Fred Gray (attorney)|Fred Gray]]
* Grover C. Hall Jr.
* [[Coretta Scott King]]
* [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]
* [[Theodora Lacey]]
* [[Edgar Nixon]]
* [[Rosa Parks]]
* [[Mother Pollard]]
* [[Jo Ann Robinson]]
* [[Bayard Rustin]]
* [[Nate Singleton]]
* [[Glenn E. Smiley|Glenn Smiley]]
* [[Mary Louise Smith (civil rights activist)|Mary Louise Smith]]
{{div col end}}

===Organizations===
{{div col}}
* Committee for Nonviolent Integration
* [[Fellowship of Reconciliation]]
* [[Georgia Gilmore#Club from Nowhere|Georgia Gilmore]]
* [[Men of Montgomery]]<ref>{{cite journal |title=Social Movements and Social-Change Litigation: Synergy in the Montgomery Bus Protest |first1=Christopher |last1=Coleman |first2=Laurence D. |last2=Nee |first3=Leonard S. |last3=Rubinowitz |journal=[[Law & Social Inquiry]] |volume=30 |issue=4 |year=2005 |pages=663–736 (notes 106, 187)|doi=10.1086/500178 |doi-broken-date=March 19, 2024 |jstor=4092740 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4092740}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=The Role of Law in the Civil Rights Movement: The Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955-1957|first=Robert Jerome |last=Glennon |journal=Law and History Review |year=1991 |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=59–112 |doi=10.2307/743660 |jstor=743660 |s2cid=145141702 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/743660}}</ref>
* [[Montgomery Improvement Association]]
* [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]]
* [[Women's Political Council]]
{{div col end}}

==See also==
{{div col}}
* [[1957 Alexandra Bus Boycott]]
* ''[[Boycott (2001 film)|Boycott]]'' (2001 film)
* [[Bristol Bus Boycott, 1963]]
* [[The Legacy Museum]]
* ''[[The Long Walk Home]]'' (1990 film)
* ''[[Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story]]''
* [[Rosa Parks Act]]
* [[Rosa Parks Museum]]
{{div col end}}
* In ''[[Eyes on the Prize]]'', the award-winning documentary on the Civil Rights movement, the Montgomery bus boycott is the focus of the second half of Episode #1, "Awakenings."

{{Portal bar|1950s|United States}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{Refbegin|40em}}
* Berg, Allison, "Trauma and Testimony in Black Women's Civil Rights Memoirs: ''The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It'', ''Warriors Don't Cry'', and ''From the Mississippi Delta', ''Journal of Women's History'', 21 (Fall 2009), 84–107.
* Branch, Taylor. ''Parting The Waters: America In The King Years, 1954-63'' (1988; New York: Simon & Schuster/Touchstone, 1989). {{ISBN|0-671-68742-5}}
* Carson, Clayborne, et al., editors, ''Eyes on The Prize Civil Rights Reader: documents, speeches, and first hand accounts from the black freedom struggle'' (New York:Penguin Books, 1991). {{ISBN|0-14-015403-5}}
* Freedman, Russell, "Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott"
* Garrow, David J. ''Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.'' (1986) {{ISBN|0-394-75623-1}}
* Garrow, David J., editor, ''The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson'' (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1987).  {{ISBN|0-87049-527-5}}
* King, Martin Luther, Jr., ''Stride Toward Freedom.''  {{ISBN|0-06-250490-8}}
* Morris, Aldon D., ''The Origins Of The Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing For Change'' (New York: The Free Press, 1984).  {{ISBN|0-02-922130-7}}
* {{cite book|last=Parks|first=Rosa|title=My Story|year=1992|publisher=Dial Books|location=New York}}
* Raines, Howell, ''My Soul Is Rested: The Story Of The Civil Rights Movement In The Deep South.''  {{ISBN|0-14-006753-1}}
* Robnett, Belinda. ''How Long? How Long?: African American Women in the Struggle for Civil Rights.'' Oxford University Press. (1997) {{ISBN|978-0195114904}}
* Thornton III, J. Mills.  "Challenge and Response in the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955–1956." ''Alabama Review'' 67.1 (2014): 40–112.
* Thornton III, J. Mills.  ''Dividing Lines: Municipal Politics and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma'' (2002) [https://www.amazon.com/Dividing-Lines-Municipal-Montgomery-Birmingham/dp/081731170X/  excerpt]
* Walsh, Frank, ''Landmark Events in American History: The Montgomery Bus Boycott.''
* Williams, Juan, ''Eyes on The Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965'' (New York: Penguin Books, 1988).  {{ISBN|0-14-009653-1}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Montgomery Bus Boycott}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100713060143/http://www.libraries.psu.edu/digital/rabin/about.html Alabama Civil Rights Collection] – [[Jack Rabin]] Collection on Alabama Civil Rights and Southern Activists, at [[Pennsylvania State University]], includes oral history interviews and materials concerning Montgomery Bus Boycott
* [http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1567 Montgomery Bus Boycott article, Encyclopedia of Alabama] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130514023549/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1567 |date=May 14, 2013 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071012044141/http://africanaonline.com/montgomery.htm Montgomery Bus Boycott – Story of Montgomery Bus Boycott]
* [https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/montgomery-bus-boycott Encyclopedia entry on the Montgomery Bus Boycott] – Includes cross-referenced text, historical documents and streaming audio, presented by the King Research Institute at Stanford University
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070305201140/http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/montgomerybusboycott/a/montbusboycott.htm  The Montgomery Bus Boycott] – African-American History
* [http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis55.htm#1955mbb Montgomery Bus Boycott] – Civil Rights Movement Archive
* [http://www.indypendent.org/?p=645 Learning From Rosa Parks, ''The Indypendent'']
* [http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/  Montgomery Bus Boycott – Presented by the ''Montgomery Advertiser''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121213121035/http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/ |date=December 13, 2012 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080616233206/http://www.archives.state.al.us/mugshots/mugshots.html Civil Rights Era Mug Shots], Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, Alabama Department of Archives & History
* [http://www.ep.tc/mlk/index.html Martin Luther King and the "Montgomery Story" Comic Book] – 1956
* [http://www.crmvet.org/info/mbbhome.htm Montgomery Bus Boycott Documents] Online collection of original boycott documents and articles by participants – Civil Rights Movement Archive.
* [http://crdl.usg.edu/events/montgomery_bus_boycott/ Montgomery Bus Boycott], Civil Rights Digital Library.
* [http://rosaparksbiography.org/bio/the-boycott/ The Boycott], ''The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks.''

{{Civil rights movement|state=uncollapsed}}
{{African American topics}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Montgomery bus boycott| ]]
[[Category:1955 protests]]
[[Category:1956 protests]]
[[Category:Civil rights protests in the United States]]
[[Category:Boycotts of organizations]]  <!-- the organization boycotted was the Montgomery Bus public transit system -->
[[Category:Conflicts in 1955]]
[[Category:Civil rights movement]]
[[Category:1955 in the United States]]
[[Category:History of Montgomery, Alabama|Bus Boycott]]
[[Category:History of racism in Alabama]]
[[Category:Martin Luther King Jr.]]
[[Category:African-American history of Alabama]]
[[Category:1955 in Alabama]]
[[Category:1956 in Alabama]]
[[Category:Transportation in Montgomery, Alabama]]
[[Category:Protests in Alabama]]
[[Category:1955 in transport]]
[[Category:1956 in transport]]
[[Category:Bus transportation in Alabama]]
[[Category:Boycotts]]
[[Category:December 1955 events in the United States]]