Montgomery Bus Boycott Essay

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During the 1940s-1960s, America’s Civil rights movements and the treatment of African Americans from the Jim Crow Laws was ongoing issue for generations. I decided to choose the Montgomery bus boycott as my topic because of prior knowledge about the first black women’s arrest against the laws of racial segregation which sparked my interest in The Montgomery bus boycott as they were both on the constitution of segregation. research shows that The Montgomery bus boycott was one of the first steps in changing the discrimination against black people and impacted segregation laws, short term economically and in the long term supported the foundation for successive protest marches.

Historians would explain that the event documented the ways the African Americans dealt with racial oppression, color bar, and racial equality. Sources such as photography and newspaper articles show how largely supported the protest was by the African Americans, capturing their motives and beliefs. Thus, the Montgomery bus boycott was significant in contributing to the success of The Civil Rights Movement in America and fought against racial oppression, color bar, and racial segregation and specifies an understanding of racial barriers and how the protest begged for racial equality.

Source Analysis

Source 1

On a cold, dim late Thursday afternoon of December 1, 1955, a forty-two-year-old seamstress named Rosa Parks, a trim, soft-spoken, bespectacled woman of tidily proper comportment, left after a day of working in the tailor shop of a downtown Montgomery department store and, wearily, boarded a city bus home. She took an aisle seat near the middle of the already crowded bus, besides three other black passengers, in the row right behind the front section reserved by law for whites – which rapidly filled until, at the third stop, a white man was left having to stand. The driver turned to demand of Mrs. Parks and the three blacks beside her, ‘Awright you folks, I want those seats.’ The other three black passengers compliantly arose and moved to stand in the back of the bus – but Mrs. Parks did not budge. The driver again demanded she vacates her seat for the white passenger. She then replied, out of weariness not just from her day’s toil but from all the accumulated debasements and indignities of her past years as a black in Montgomery, quietly and simply: ‘No.’

Source 2

View of a number of African-American commuters as they walk to work… (n.d.). Getty Images. https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/view-of-a-number-of-african-american-commuters-as-they-walk-news-photo/163755534?adppopup=true

Source 3

negro’s arrest, a $14 fine may lead to a court test on bus segregation. (1955). Newspapers.com – Historical Newspapers from the 1700s-2000s. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47031037/after-the-arrest-of-rosa-parks/>

Source 4

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary to abolish the Negro race, proper methods should be used. Among these are guns, bows and arrows, slingshots, and knives. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all whites are created equal with certain rights; among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of dead niggers (sic). In every stage of the bus boycott, we have been oppressed and degraded because of black, slimy, juicy, unbearably stinking niggers (sic). The conduct should not be dwelt upon because behind them they have an ancestral background of Pigmies, head hunters, and snot suckers. My friends, it is time we wised up to these black devils. I tell you they are a group of two-legged agitators who persist in walking up and down our streets protruding their black lips. If we don’t stop helping these African flesh-eaters, we will soon wake up and find Rev. King in the White House. Let’s get on the ball white citizens.

Source 5

Many black Montgomerians enjoyed their newly recognized right only abstractly; they avoided the anxiety-producing friction that attended what the segregationists called ‘race mixing.’ The boycott involved communal withdrawal from the presence of the color line. But for a black rider actually crossing the color line was a different matter that involved an exercise of individual will and personal vulnerability that for many proved immensely and understandably daunting. For others, the problem involved a loss of that heightened sense of duty that, during the protest, had generated such glorious departures from normalcy. In the aftermath of the boycott, the gravitational pull of old habits exerted their force: ‘When we first started getting back on the buses I sat up front,’ one former boycotter recalled, ‘ but then I began sitting in the back–I wasn’t afraid or nothing: it’s just that I was accustomed to it.

The boycott made black Montgomerians aware of themselves as a community with obligations and capacities to which they and others had previously been blind. On the eve of the boycott, few would have imagined the latent abilities that resided within that community. The protest elicited and clarified those abilities. On the eve of the boycott, few black Montgomerians would have considered themselves as persons with important political duties. The protest inculcated and enlarged their sense of responsibility. Moreover, by publicizing their willingness and ability to mobilize united opposition to Jim Crow practices, the protesters in Montgomery contributed a therapeutic dose of inspiration to dissidents everywhere. Later developments would attest to the influence of the boycott as a role model that encouraged other acts of rebellion. Participants in subsequent protests remember Montgomery as a distinct, encouraging presence.

‘Martin Luther King Jr: A Life is a biography written by Marshall Frady in 2002 to showcase martin’s life and his impact on discrimination against people of color and to inform people of the hardships the black community faced and endured for something as ordinary as equality. The story takes place on a cold, dim late Thursday afternoon of December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks was arrested for breaching the laws of black people being denied seats on the bus for a white person. From the direct response from rosa to the bus driver of ‘no’, we can clearly indicate that rosa did not want to and would not give up her seat. From the sources’ descriptive and useful language and exaggeration we can infer that people of color were clearly fed up with the laws of the bus, giving a helpful insight into just how unjust they were treated.

‘view of a number of African-American commuters as they walk to work’ captured by Grey Villet during the boycott, February 1965 to prove loyalty to people of color’s decision to not take the bus. This source shows the image of a group of young African American men and women walking to show their support and participation in the boycott. This group of African Americans signifies the alliance of all people of color during the bus boycott. This photograph has perspectives of trying to show the conscious efforts of the black community in Montgomery to avoid the buses and to be passionate about their rights and loyalty to the boycott.

‘negro’s arrest, $14 fine may lead to court test on bus segregation is a newspaper article written in 1955 following the arrest of Rosa Parks and specifically the Montgomery bus boycott. The article contains a critical summary of the arrest and what occurred during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, before and after It was executed. This source was produced to let the public accurately know about the perspectives of the lawyers who stood for Rosa Parks’ arrest and how they were driven by the many years of being put into color bars, segregation, and racial discrimination.

‘White Citizens’ Council’ published by the Montgomery Advertiser on 11 February 1956 is an article that shows the perspectives of the white supremacists, their efforts to belittle the African Americans, and their plans to ‘abolish the Negro race. The author of this source wrote this advertisement directly at white members of Montgomery, ‘LET’S GET ON THE BALL WHITE CITIZENS’ as they described the African Americans as black devils, two legged agitators protruding their black lips African flesh eaters, and “black, slimy, juicy, unbearably stinking niggers.” The author persists on the fact that African Americans are a threat to their society and show a perspective with the use of such foul language to describe the African American people.

‘The Legal Status of the Southern Negro in 1955 – The Limitations and Achievements of the Montgomery Bus Boycott’ written by Randall Vernellia and published in 2018 Is a modernized telling of what happened after the bus boycott and the relationship between the bus boycott and the fight for civil rights, showing perspectives from the African Americans. “The boycott made black Montgomerians aware of themselves as a community with obligations and capacities to which they and others had previously been blind”.

“During this boycott, “their willingness and ability to mobilize united opposition to Jim Crow practices, the protesters in Montgomery contributed a therapeutic dose of inspiration to dissidents everywhere”. These quotes from the source show the impact on the way African Americans were treated, leading doorways to create better civil rights movements for them. Thus, it demonstrates a slow momentum for social change regarding African Americans in America.

Critical Summary of Evidence

The selection of the chosen primary and secondary sources helped to provide different perspectives from the African Americans, white supremacists, and protesters during the bus boycott and many years later recounting the event. With the help of these sources documenting different times from the event, I was able to form an inquiry about the impact of the Montgomery Bus Boycott on the civil rights movement in America. The movement of the civil rights campaign was a slow process but the Montgomery bus boycott did eventually long-term impact the civil rights campaign by desegregating and short-term affected the economy and brought worldwide publicity to the event creating awareness about the issue.

The diversity of sources and their different perspectives was crucial in forming an inquiry and hypothesis. Finding sources from the perspectives of the African Americans and the way they were treated and how they felt about the Montgomery bus boycott and their participation during the event was crucial to creating a contrast between their views and the white supremacists and their motives for treating them that way. The findings and sources support the hypothesis because the Montgomery bus boycott was very significant in contributing to the success of The Civil Rights Movement in The United States of America and fought against racial oppression, color bar, racial segregation, and Jim Crow laws and specifies an understanding into racial barriers and how the protest begged for racial equality.

Reference List

Marshall Frady, 2002, Martin Luther King Jr: A Life, Penguin, New York, pp. 29-30
negro’s arrest, a $14 fine may lead to a court test on bus segregation. (1955). Newspapers.com – Historical Newspapers from the 1700s-2000s. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47031037/after-the-arrest-of-rosa-parks/>
Randall, Vernellia R., 2018, The Legal Status of the Southern Negro in 1955 – The Limitations and Achievements of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Available: http://www.racism.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=567:civilrights03a-1&catid=135&Itemid=159&showall=&limitstart=4
View of a number of African-American commuters as they walk to work… (n.d.). Getty Images. https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/view-of-a-number-of-african-american-commuters-as-they-walk-news-photo/163755534?adppopup=true
White Citizens’ Council, Montgomery Advertiser, 11 February 1956: https://mtstmichaelscollege-my.sharepoint.com/personal/17680_msm_qld_edu_au/Documents/Humanities/2020/Term%202/10%20Hum%20ISI%202020%20(1).docx>

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