12 Incredible Facts About The Montgomery Bus Boycott
In 1868 the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution became law It said that all citizens including former slaves had the right to be protected by US laws But many white people in the South did not agree They passed laws of their own These laws forced black people to live separately from white people Black people could not use the same schools restaurants or bathrooms as white people This kind of separation is called segregation Southern states with segregation laws included CLAUDETTE COLVIN On March 2 1955 15-year-old Claudette Colvin took a stand She refused to give up her seat for white passengers in Montgomery The bus driver called the police Colvin was dragged off the bus and arrested A judge convicted her of assaulting the police She was one of several young black people who challenged segregation laws by refusing to give up their seats on buses Some taxicabs served only white passengers SEGREGATION LAWS RULE THE SOUTH 1 4
Alabama Arkansas Georgia Florida Louisiana Mississippi North Carolina South Carolina Tennessee Texas and Virginia Segregation laws were based on skin color They discriminated against black people and other racial minorities Black people did not have the same rights and opportunities as white people In Montgomery Alabama the city bus line was segregated The first ten rows of seats were saved for white people only Black people had to sit behind those seats Sometimes the bus became crowded and there were more white people than could fit into the first rows When that happened the bus driver moved black people even farther to the back of the bus Black people without seats were told to stand They had to give their seats to white people 36 Number of seats on a Montgomery city bus Segregation laws were common in the South Segregation limited the rights and opportunities of black people and other racial minorities Montgomery’s city bus line was segregated Black people had to sit in the back of the bus or stand Some bus stations had separate waiting rooms 5
In 1955 Rosa Parks was a 42-year-old black woman living in Montgomery Alabama She worked as a seamstress She was also involved in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NAACP This organization worked to gain equal rights for black people December 1 1955 started off as a typical day for Parks She paid JO ANN ROBINSON Jo Ann Robinson was a professor at Alabama State College She was also a member of the Women’s Political Council In 1949 she accidentally sat in the white section of a bus The bus driver shouted at her and she got off the bus That day she vowed to do whatever she could to end bus segregation The exact spot where Rosa Parks waited for her bus ROSA PARKS SAYS NO 2 6
10 cents to ride the bus home after work She sat behind the sign on the bus that separated white passengers from black passengers After the white section of the bus filled the driver told Parks and the other three black passengers sitting in her row to stand up so that a white man could sit there The other passengers in her row moved to the back but Parks stayed in her seat The bus driver walked to the back of the bus He asked Parks if she was going to get up She told him no The driver called the police Parks was taken off the bus and arrested Parks’s arrest was the final straw for the frustrated black citizens of Montgomery That night Jo Ann Robinson from the Women’s Political Council wrote a letter to the black community It encouraged everyone to boycott buses for one day on Monday December 5 At the same time E D Nixon the founder of the Montgomery NAACP was busy calling local pastors and black community leaders He asked them to support the boycott 10 Cost in cents for a ride on the Montgomery bus line in 1955 On December 1 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery Alabama Parks was arrested for her actions Other black community leaders planned to boycott buses in Montgomery A stamp celebrates Rosa Parks 7
