The Montgomery Bus Boycott Essay

Document Type:Essay

Subject Area:History

Document 1

This paper gives the analysis of the events relating to the bus boycott, the organizers and how they managed to achieve their objectives. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was faced with many challenges, but still managed to be successful since the black community decided to engage fully and elected a focused leader, Martin Luther King Jr, to free them from discrimination. Since the formation of the city’s segregation laws, the Montgomery’s black community was looking forward to raise objection against them, but there was not a good opportunity to be successful in this. The opportunity came after the refusal of seamstress Rosa Parks to give her seat to a white passenger on the city bus (Kennedy, 1005). When the incidence was happening, the local laws dictated the essence of African American riders to be seated at the back of the buses and the whites to remain seated in front.

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On Monday, December 5, the boycott began and was effective since around 90% of those blacks riding were part of the boycott as they look for other means of transport (Kohl, 38). The same evening, the leaders met and generated the M. I. A (Montgomery Improvement Association) and the election was held with Martin Luther King Jr. being elected as the organization’s president. In general, the whites and the bus companies at Montgomery were not ready for a defeat from the African American community and tried all they could to discourage them from protesting. In the entire period of the boycott, which was more than one year, the extremists in the local white communities tried to revenge against the activists in different ways.

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Those blacks who were riding in the carpools were agitated by the police. Besides, bombs were set off to the houses of E. D. The boycott only ended after the orders for the desegregation were received in large scale in Montgomery. The association filed a federal suit the same day against bus discrimination, which led to that ruling (Wilson, 312). Consequently, the boycott ended and from then, blacks and whites boarded buses with no discrimination. Despite the long time taken by the African Americans while struggling for a change in the Montgomery bus system and the end of the segregation laws, the African Americans managed to achieve their goals. In conclusion, the Montgomery bus Boycott was a successful incidence in the public rights movements, which took place in the 1950s and the 1960s, as it led to changes in the bus system.

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