Montgomery bus boycott
The Montgomery bus boycott ( Engl. : Montgomery Bus Boycott ) was a protest of the black civil rights movement in Montgomery (Alabama) against the policy of segregation and racial segregation . It was initiated by Rosa Parks in December 1955 and lasted until December 1956. Other notable participants were Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy .
background
Segregation saw at that time in the buses of the public transport before that blacks were allowed to use only certain rows of seats at the back of the bus. They also had to stand up for white people if there were no more seats available for them. In Montgomery, they had to pay their fare to the driver at the front and then get off to get to their seats in the back of the bus - sometimes the bus driver would leave without letting the blacks get on. In addition, there was constant harassment by the drivers and passengers, so that this racist practice led to increasing protests. Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery on December 1, 1955, after she refused to clear her seat for a white passenger. The arrest caused a stir across the country and led the city's black population to commit civil disobedience .
history
The Women's Political Council organized a one-day boycott of public buses on December 5th, the day of the trial against Rosa Parks. The black population was encouraged to carpool, to use taxis or to walk. The participation rate was almost 100 percent, so that it became clear that the black population was united behind the protest.
At the same time, 50 civil rights activists, including Martin Luther King , met to discuss a campaign for the trial. After Rosa Parks was convicted, the boycott widened and King, who had experience conducting nonviolent resistance , became involved in the organization. The Montgomery Improvement Association was formed and King was elected chairman. On the evening of December 5th, he gave a speech in front of an audience of 7,000 at Holt Street Baptist Church, in which he announced a continuation of the boycott. The demands were: respectful treatment, equal rights for all passengers and the hiring of black bus drivers.
In addition to car pooling, black taxi companies played an important role, they drove the boycotters for 10 cents. The police put an end to this action by decreeing a minimum fare of 45 ct. stated. As a result, up to 300 drivers formed a car pool and set up their own “stops” where they offered their driving services. The campaign was supported by donations from all over the country.
Over time, white opponents tried to break the resistance with false reports that the boycott was over, arbitrary reports and open violence. The successful boycott put the city of Montgomery under severe economic pressure, so that it had to drastically increase fares. The city administration therefore put the insurers of motorists who took part in car pools under pressure to terminate the contracts. In contrast, activists organized a takeover of the policies by Lloyd's of London . There were repeated arrests, and Martin Luther King was fined $ 500 on March 22, 1956 for violating the anti-boycott law. The process was observed by journalists from many countries.
Since there was no sign of the city giving in, five women arrested on buses for violations of segregation filed a lawsuit. The plaintiffs Aurelia Browder, Claudette Colvin , Mary Louise Smith, Susie McDonald and Jeanetta Reese sued in the Browder v. Gayle vetoed the city of Montgomery on the grounds that the practice of racial segregation violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution . On June 19, 1956, the competent federal district court ruled with reference to the landmark judgment Brown v. Board of Education of the Supreme Court of 1954, which declared racial segregation in schools unconstitutional and thereby rejected the principle of Separate but equal from the judgment of 1896 , in the sense of the lawsuit: It was ordered that the practice of segregation in the buses should be discontinued due to unconstitutionality. The city's lawyers immediately appealed to the Supreme Court. During this time the segregation and also the boycott continued.
The house of the white Reverend Robert Graetz, who supported the boycott, was the target of a bomb attack. Since the family had left the city, there were no injuries. The mayor used this attack as an opportunity to intensify the repression against blacks and he said that for him the boycott could go on forever.
On November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court upheld the Federal District Court's decision. On December 20, the verdict reached Montgomery; On the morning of the next day, Martin Luther King , Ralph Abernathy , Edgar Nixon and Glenn Smiley boarded the first integrated bus: the boycott was over. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was one of the crucial victories that helped the civil rights movement break through. Martin Luther King's name recognition increased enormously in the year of the boycott.
After the boycott ends
On January 10, 1957, King was elected President of the newly formed Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
Another bomb attack was carried out on the pastorate on January 27th. A few days later, the police arrested seven white men, two of whom confessed to the attack. Nevertheless, they were released again.
On February 18, 1957, the weekly Time magazine published a report - with a photo on the cover - about King (author: Lee Griggs).
On March 3, 1957, he traveled to Ghana , because he was invited to release the country for independence (March 6).
On June 13, 1957, King and Abernathy had a two and a half hour interview with Vice President Richard Nixon .
In September 1957 events in Little Rock (capital of the US state Arkansas) caused a worldwide sensation:
Three years after the official desegregation in schools, the first nine black students ( Little Rock Nine ) began there at Little Rock Central High School . In order to deny these Afro-American students access to the building, the then governor of the state ( Orval Faubus ) had the National Guard serve on the first day of school . Over 1,000 angry whites demonstrated. For a few days the Guard succeeded in preventing the Little Rock Nine from attending school; then Faubus had to withdraw the guard as a result of a court decision. In addition, Dwight D. Eisenhower ( US President from 1953 to 1961) stood against him: Eisenhower placed all police and army units in Arkansas under federal command and sent troops of the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, around nine on the way to school and to protect in the building.
media
The 2001 racism drama Boycott takes up the events of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. The film The Rosa Parks Story also takes up the topic. The short documentary film A Time for Justice (1994), which also addresses the Montgomery bus boycott when portraying the civil rights movement, received an Oscar. In 2002 the short documentary Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks was released.
literature
- Martin Luther King: Stride Toward Freedom. The Montgomery Story . New edition, Beacon Press 2010, ISBN 978-0-8070-0069-4 . (First edition 1957)
Web links
- Overview of some participants in the boycott ( Memento from January 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- Collection of articles on the bus boycott
Individual evidence
- ^ Zita Allen: Black Women Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement . New York 1996, p. 56-57 .
- ↑ Oates-Biografie (1984), pp. 125f., Names nine states
- ↑ Gayle v. Browder, Decision (District Court of the United States for the Middle District of Alabama Northern Division)
- ↑ Gayle v. Browder, Opinion (Supreme Court of the United States) ( Memento of August 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Oates Biography (1984), p. 137.
- ^ Feature film Boycott