Rosa Parks & Montgomery Bus Boycott
Citation: https://www.biography.com/people/rosa-parks-9433715
Rosa Parks, Biography.com
Rosa Parks is a Civil Rights
Activist she was born February 4th 1913 and died on October 24th
2005. She refused to give her seat to a white passenger on a segregated
Montgomery, Alabama. The Montgomery Bus Boycott launched after Parks refused to
give up her seat and the boycott lasted for 381days. The boycott helped end
segregation on public facilities. On December 1st 1955, after a long
day of work at a department store she took a seat designated for “colored”
people. When an African-American passenger the bus, they had to get on at the
front to pay their fair and then get off; then they had to re-board the bus
through the back door. The driver of Rosa’s bus stopped the bus and moved the
sign further separating the blacks and whites. Therefore, four black passengers
had to give up their seats, but Rosa refused. The driver screamed, “Why don’t
you stand up?” to which Rosa replied, “I don’t think I should have to stand up.”
The driver called the police and had her arrested. Rosa stated that she did not
give up her seat because she was tired, she gave up her seat because she was
tired of succumbing to racism. The police arrested Rosa at the scene and
charged her with violation of Chapter 6 Section 11, of the Montgomery city
code. She was taken to police headquarters, later that night, she was released
on bail.
Montgomery
Bus Boycott
On the evening that Rosa Parks
was arrested, E.D. Nixon who is head of the local chapter of the NAACP, began
planning to organize a boycott of Montgomery’s city buses. Ads were places in
local papers and handbills were distributed in black neighborhoods. People
living in African-American neighborhoods were asked to stay off city buses on
Monday, December 5th, 1955 until blacks were treated equally. People
were asked to stay home from work or school, take a cab or walk to work.
African-Americans believed that a longer boycott would be successful because
the Montgomery buses would lose money. The Montgomery Improvement Association elected
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as the president for the organization. When Rosa
arrived at the courthouse for trial that morning with her attorney, she was
greeted by a huge crowd who supported her. The hearing lasted for 30 minutes and
Rosa was found guilty of violating a local ordinance and fined $10, as well as
a $4 court fee. The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted for 381 days. The city’s
buses were empty and some people carpooled, and others rode in African-American
operated cabs. About 40,000 African-American commuters living in the city at the
time decided to walk to work some of them had to walk 20 miles. Public
transportation was no longer segregated on December 20th, 1956 due
to the city losing money and the government getting involved.