Montgomery Bus Boycott Outline

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The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a 13 month mass protest in Montgomery, Alabama to not use the bus system for public transportation. Due to it being a racial conflict, the majority of the participants were African Americans. It started on December 5, 1955 and lasted until December 20, 1956. It was sparked by Rosa Parks's arrest on December 1, 1955. She was apprehended for refusing to move from her seat to let a white man sit. Though many people say she was sitting in the front, she was in the clear back behind where the whites usually sit. Because she was asked to move by the bus driver and refused, she was arrested. This was just one of the causes for the boycott. There were many other reasons as well. Women's Political Council, a black organization, had a meeting with the mayor W. A. Gayle in 1954 to discuss the Montgomery bus situation. They requested changes such as no one should have to stand over empty seats; a rule that black individuals would not be forced to enter from the rear while they must pay at the front, and a policy that would make buses stop at all of the corners in black residential areas, like they did in white neighborhoods. Although the group made some very noteworthy points, this meeting brought forth no change.…show more content…
Most people walked to school or work, found a ride with a friend, caught a taxi, or hitchhiked. That evening, a large group of people met at Holt Street Baptist Church where Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to advocate the continuation of this boycott. King stated, "I want it to be known that we’re going to work with grim and bold determination to gain justice on the buses in this city. And we are not wrong.… If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. If we are wrong, God Almighty is
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