Part 2
LEARNING TOGETHER: The Story of America
With the success of the day-long Montgomery Bus Boycott, that night at the Holt Street Baptist Church Dr. King and other leaders decided to extend the protest. And if you were one of the lucky few to have attended this meeting, you would have heard Dr. King say these powerful, awe-inspiring words:
“And we are not wrong, we are not wrong in what we are doing. If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we are wrong the Constitution of the United States is wrong. If we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong. If we are wrong, Jesus of Nazareth was merely a utopian dreamer that never came down to earth. If we are wrong, justice is a lie. Love has no meaning. And we are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Now, you might be wondering, if I decide to partake in this movement how do I get around town. Well, you walked, rode your bike, carpooled, or used taxis. There were times when (mostly) women who worked as maids and servants in private homes were driven to and from work by their employers, aka the lady of the house. On the other hand, not all Southern Belles were so generous or supportive of the cause. Unfortunately, many of these maids and servants were threatened, harassed, and fired.
You’ve got to admit that it feels empowering (and a little scary) to take a bold stand against hatred and segregation, especially in the Deep South. As the days go by, you realize that you are now part of a national movement to right a wrong. You begin to witness cracks in the wall of oppression. You start to believe that you can make a difference.
But before you start to pat yourself on the back, don’t think that the white leaders of Montgomery were going to take this defiance of its Black citizens lying down. Here’s a few of the actions taken to stop the bus boycott:
- The city managers penalized Black taxi drivers who assisted with the boycott.
- King and other leaders’ homes, along with four Black churches, were bombed.
- Over 80 protest leaders were prosecuted for plotting to interfere with a business.
- Many Black citizens were harassed, beaten and some were fired from their jobs, whether they participated in the bus boycott or not.
- Carpool drivers were arrested on petty traffic violations or trumped-up charges.
Yet, despite the efforts by the city leaders of Montgomery to end the boycott, Black people stood firm and stayed off the buses. Day after day, month after month, the boycott continued. Finally, a year later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregated seating on public buses was unconstitutional. (This only applied to city buses. If you wanted to travel via bus let’s say from Montgomery to Chicago the bus system was still segregated. It would be the Freedom Riders in the 1960s that brought attention to this injustice.)
The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted for 381 days from December 5, 1955 to December 20, 1956. (Power to the People!) These folks, like Rosa Parks were just tired after years and years of living under inequality, Jim Crow laws, the Black Codes, etc. They were determined to force America to live up to its promise of equality. We all owe a big thank you to the thousands of unsung American heroes who walked miles to and from school, work, church, etc., faced intimidation, beatings, bombings, and termination from their jobs to stand up against racial segregation, discrimination, Southern pride (aka racism) etc.
When Americans stand together against hatred, racism, and unjust laws, we truly become a world leader of democracy.
Noteworthy Fact(s):
Women played a major role in the success of the bus boycott.
African American bus riders were initially asking for:
- Courteous treatment by bus drivers.
- First come, first serve seating for all.
- Black bus drivers to be hired for predominately Black routes (Sounds pretty reasonable to me, especially since the majority of the bus riders, some 40,000 or 70%, were people of color. What business do you know that would insult the majority of their customers?)
- That buses stopped at all bus stops in Black neighborhoods.
This was not the first bus boycott. There was a 6-day boycott in Baton Rouge, LA in 1953.
King was only 26 years old when he took on a leadership role in this movement.
Rosa Parks sat in the first row of the Colored Section. When Mrs. Parks was arrested, she was fined $10 plus an additional $4 in court fees.
It was the case of Browder v. Gayle that finally ruled that segregation was unconstitutional.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott inspired a wave of protests against racial segregation. Black people all over the South were refusing to move to the back of the bus including places like such as Tallahassee, Florida, which had its own bus boycott.
It is estimated that the bus company lost about $3,000 per day between 1955-1956. Today that is around $28,873.00 per day. (Remember, all of this hatred was to maintain the Southern way of life which meant that one group had to oppress another group in order to feel superior to that group.)
OUR HISTORY MATTERS
#37
