The Montgomery Bus Boycotts of 1955-56 Essay

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a peaceful protest initiated by African Americans in the American city Montgomery, Alabama. African Americans advocated the abolition of discriminatory measures in public transport. This boycott lasted from December 1, 1955 to December 20, 1956, culminating in a decision of the US Supreme Court that recognized racial segregation in transportation as illegal act. Thus, the thesis statement is the following: the Montgomery Bus Boycott highly affected the development of the Civil Rights Movement because despite all the difficulties on the way to freedom, it becomes a great opportunity for black population to start a protest against unfair segregation laws, including bus segregation.  

To begin, it is important to note that the Montgomery Bus Boycott was one of the first and most notorious episodes in the history of the struggle for black civil rights. In the early 1950s, the civil rights movement was still quite weak and could not withstand the serious political and economic institutions of white America. However, the segregation laws, which continued to operate on the territory of the United States, continued to heat up the boiler, in which the black Americans were already seething. It should be noted that before the incident with Rosa Parks, there were cases of civil disobedience to the norms established by law, but after the “offense” of the black population, they were either justified, or in most cases, fined.

Exploring the fact, which laid the foundation to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, it is important to mention the name of a black woman Rosa Parks. This black woman refused to give her seat to a white man in public bus. It was a turning point for African Americans to combine their efforts and try to overcome existing obstacles. Describing the life of African Americans in that period of time, according to the laws of the city of Montgomery, black citizens should not occupy the first four rows “for whites only” in buses (Williams and Greenhaw, 2006). If all the “white only” seats were occupied, then the sitting blacks were forced to give up their seats to the white passengers. It means that in those years, blacks were subjected to very severe segregation in public transport.

Martin Luther King described the state of urban transport, mentioning that there were no blacks among the bus drivers and, although some white drivers were polite, while too many of them allowed themselves insults and curses toward blacks (Jackson, 2008). Moreover, African Americans were forced to pay for the passage at the entrance and it was not an easy step to enter the bus. To explain, bus drivers preferred African Americans to enter the bus from the back platform, after having received a payment for travel near the front door. However, very often, the bus left before the black man approached the back door, taking away this payment for travel. African Americans were forced to stand, although there were white-only seats on the bus. Even if there were no white passengers on the bus, and the blacks were cramming a lot, they were not allowed to take the first four rows of seats (Kinshasa, 2006). In most cases, African Americans obeyed the rule that they should give up their seats to the white man without objection, although from time to time there were those people who refused to submit to this humiliation and were fined and arrested for civil disobedience.

As it was previously mentioned, Rosa Parks’ refusal was a turning point in the struggle for black civil rights. This timid refusal was the first in a series of actions that turned the struggle in the field of race relations from the struggle of activists in the courts and legislative bodies into a confrontation that could draw strength from the protests of entire societies and groups of the population. Over the next year, the black population of Montgomery raised its head and boycotted buses until they repealed the law on racial segregation in public transport.

The boycott caused enormous financial damage to the bus lines, gathered rallies from tens of thousands of protesters, contributed to the emergence of a young charismatic leader Martin Luther King Jr., and also gave rise to a movement that spread to Little Rock, Greensboro, Reilly, Birmingham and finally came to the congress. Parks became a real heroine, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and was a vivid example of how a single act of disobedience can change the world.

Into the acknowledgement of the previously mentioned fact, the Montgomery Bus Boycott contributed to the emergence of a whole series of new social habits that quickly spread to Greensboro in North Carolina, Selma in Alabama and Little Rock in Arkansas (Burns, 1997). The civil rights movement turned into a wave of sedentary and peaceful demonstrations, although the participants were mercilessly beaten. By the early 1960s, the movement reached Florida, California, Washington and Congress.

By signing the “Civil Rights Act” in 1964, which banned all forms of segregation, as well as discrimination against minorities and women, President Lyndon Johnson equated civil rights activists with the founding fathers of the American nation. Just a decade ago similar comparison would be tantamount to political suicide, while the Montgomery Bus Boycott proved the whole world that a small group of brave people, even one person, are able to begin a long struggle for freedom (Dornfeld, 1995). It means that according to Lyndon Johnson’s idea, generation of his contemporaries was called upon to continue the never-ending search for justice in the United States.

Considering the black civil rights movement influence, it can be noted that this movement does not occur because everyone suddenly decided to move in one direction. In its basis can be found a presence of certain social models that originate in the form of habits of friendship, intertwined with the habits of society and were supported by new habits that change the sense of self of the participants.

Focusing on the achievements and struggles African Americans went through, it can be said that the only thing King and his supporters wanted was to grant equal rights to passengers of buses, regardless of the color of their skin and their race. The city authorities did not want to compromise, did not considering their actions illegal. On the contrary, they argued that the actions of King and his supporters violate state laws. A boycott, in itself, was considered similar to a violation of order, while the use of private cars as a replacement for buses. Thus, the city authorities considered themselves right, and blacks considered lawbreakers.

The organizers of the boycott, convinced Christians, laid down the Jesus formula of love, which proclaims the idea to love the enemies, as the basis of the boycott tactics. King believed that a Christian should never be reconciled with an unjust order, but his heart should not be hardened because violence cannot be eliminated by violence. In such a way, the power of the soul should be opposed to violence. Thus, Christian love in the Negro civil rights movement came to be seen as the equivalent of love to the world around in Gandhism. The participants of the movement were told that even despite the repression, it was necessary to consistently and consciously follow the principle of gospel love for all, awakening it in the hearts of their opponents. Owing to the efforts of King and members of the boycott committee, the protest of the Negro population lasted 381 days and went down in history as “walking in the name of freedom”.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott experience clearly showed that nonviolent action is impossible without absolute faith in the power and effectiveness of love, forgiveness, self-sacrifice. The intrinsic value of this method lies in the fact that it removes the opposition of aims and means according to ethical criteria. Nonviolent action awakens a new sense of self-esteem, a new moral and spiritual strength in its participant. It seeks the ways to correct human relationships and society itself, by acting on the segregated structures themselves and demanding their dissolution; counteracting the egocentric mindsets, violence and dehumanizing forces in both individuals and social institutions (that is, in very general terms, violent methods destroy the social mechanism, and nonviolent ones simply stop it).

In conclusion, the Montgomery Bus Boycott has opened a new page in the history of the struggle for black civil rights in the US, and it was a real victory, a victory not over the whites, but a victory of American pseudo-democracy. Summing up the results, it can be noted that in the course of the boycott, a more effective way than black extremism and nationalism was found. The path of love and non-violence, as well as the path of mobilization of the masses proved their effectiveness in real life conditions. King and his associates were convinced that non-violence is the only morally justifiable and practically real way available to black Americans in their fight for justice. Moreover, an important point to mention is the following: in the course of the struggle, an economic boycott and other forms of economic pressure, as well as political pressure were used as an effective form of influencing white racists.

Works Cited

Burns, S. Daybreak of Freedom: The Montgomery Bus Boycott. University of North Carolina Press, 1997.

Dornfeld, M. The Turning Tide: From the Desegregation of the Armed Forces to the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1948-1956). Chelsea House, 1995.

Jackson, T. Becoming King: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Making of a National Leader. University Press of Kentucky, 2008.

Kinshasa, K. “An Appraisal of Brown V. Board of Education, Topeka KS. (1954) and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.” The Western Journal of Black Studies, vol. 30, no. 4, Winter 2006.

Williams, D. and Greenhaw, W. The Thunder of Angels: The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the People Who Broke the Back of Jim Crow. Chicago Review Press, 2006.

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

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"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
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[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]
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