Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a 13 month mass protest, led by Martin Luther King Jr. It started on the 5th of December 1955 (4 days after Rosa Parks was arrested) and finished on the 20th of December 1956.
The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colour People) had been waiting to act since March that year when Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on the bus. Claudette was unmarried and considered of not much significance, so the NAACP decided to wait longer till they acted.
When Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on the bus, the NAACP had the perfect time to act, because Rosa had once worked as the secretary to president of NAACP, lots of people knew Rosa, and she knew a lot of people.
After Rosa Parks arrest, a huge crowd gathered to hear what Martin Luther King had to say. Lots of people wanted things to change, but some people just shrugged their shoulders and said there was nothing they could do. Martin Luther King believed they could do something. They could boycott and refuse to ride the buses.
African Americans were encouraged to stay home from school and work. Some people (around 40 000) decided to walk to work instead. Some had to walk around 20 miles to get there.
Many attempts were made to stop the boycott. E.D. Nixon and Martin Luther King Jr’s houses were bombed.
The Boycott took a long time to work, but eventually the transit companies were at risk of going out of business. The city had no choice but to lift the enforced segregation on public buses.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a triumph it was the start of ending segregation and the start of black and white men and women being treated equally. The Montgomery Bus Boycott may have taken a long time to work but if they didn’t do the boycott we would still have segregation on buses today.
The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colour People) had been waiting to act since March that year when Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on the bus. Claudette was unmarried and considered of not much significance, so the NAACP decided to wait longer till they acted.
When Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on the bus, the NAACP had the perfect time to act, because Rosa had once worked as the secretary to president of NAACP, lots of people knew Rosa, and she knew a lot of people.
After Rosa Parks arrest, a huge crowd gathered to hear what Martin Luther King had to say. Lots of people wanted things to change, but some people just shrugged their shoulders and said there was nothing they could do. Martin Luther King believed they could do something. They could boycott and refuse to ride the buses.
African Americans were encouraged to stay home from school and work. Some people (around 40 000) decided to walk to work instead. Some had to walk around 20 miles to get there.
Many attempts were made to stop the boycott. E.D. Nixon and Martin Luther King Jr’s houses were bombed.
The Boycott took a long time to work, but eventually the transit companies were at risk of going out of business. The city had no choice but to lift the enforced segregation on public buses.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a triumph it was the start of ending segregation and the start of black and white men and women being treated equally. The Montgomery Bus Boycott may have taken a long time to work but if they didn’t do the boycott we would still have segregation on buses today.
This is Martin Luther King's letter that announced the end of the Boycott.
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