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Montgomery Bus Boycott Facts
for kids
The following fact
sheet contains interesting information, history and
facts on Montgomery Bus Boycott for kids.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts for kids
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts - 1: Background History:
The
Plessy vs.
Ferguson Case
of 1896 declared segregation to be constitutional which
led to the
Jim
Crow Laws and the "separate but equal" doctrine
relating to public
facilities, including
transportation via public trains and
buses.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts -
2: Background History: The “separate but
equal” doctrine, first articulated in Plessy v. Ferguson, ruled that
racial segregation was constitutional and valid under the equal
protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, as long as the facilities
provided for blacks and whites were roughly equal.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts - 3: Racially segregated facilities
became common across the Southern states, separating public
facilities for blacks and whites in parks, restaurants, rest rooms,
waiting rooms, housing, schools, trains and buses.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts - 4: In 1900, the city of
Montgomery, Alabama passed a city ordinance (local law or code) for
the purpose of segregating passengers. Buses were segregated to
provide "separate but equal" seating for white and black passengers.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts - 5: The buses used a colored
section sign "White Forward - Colored Rear". Black people sat at the
back of the bus and never directly opposite a white person. The
first four rows of seats on each Montgomery bus were reserved for
whites. If more white passengers boarded the bus, the driver could
move the sign back further.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts - 6: Montgomery Bus drivers had a
free hand in assigning seats and the "powers of a police officer of
the city while in actual charge of any bus for the purposes of
carrying out the provisions". Over time the drivers also adopted the
custom of requiring black passengers to give up their seats to white
passengers, when no other seats were available, although this
practice was not specified in the city ordinance.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts - 7: Some drivers also insisted
that black passengers were not allowed to walk pass the "white
section" at the front. On such occasions, they would pay their fare
at the front, exit and walk to the mid-section entrance to re-enter
the bus in order to take a seat at the back. Sometimes the drivers
would drive off before the black passengers could re-board. If the
bus filled up with white people the black passengers could be forced
to leave, before their destination.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts - 8:
Rosa Parks
was a 42 year old seamstress who worked at a Montgomery department
store and traveled to and from work each day by bus. Rosa Parks was
the wife of Raymond Parks, an active member of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
and Rosa Parks helped as a secretary of the NAACP.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts - 9: On
Thursday December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks left work and boarded bus
2857 on the Cleveland Avenue, Montgomery City Bus Line in Alabama.
She took a seat in the first of several rows designated for
"colored" passengers.
The bus filled up with white
people so more seats were required.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts - 10: The driver,
James F. Blake, told
Rosa Parks
and three others to give up their seats for
white passengers.
The three other black passengers moved further back, but
Rosa Parks refused.
The driver called the police, and Rosa Parks was
arrested.
Continued...
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts for kids
Facts
about the Montgomery Bus Boycott for kids
The following fact
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Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts for kids
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts -
11:
Rosa Parks was charged her with violation of Chapter 6,
Section 11, of the Montgomery City Code. She was taken
to police headquarters, finger printed and released on
bail. (The court later found Rosa Parks guilty and
fined her $10, plus $4 costs).. News of her arrest
quickly reached local African American organizations
including the NAACP and the WPC.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts - 12: The Women’s Political Council
(WPC) was established in Montgomery, Alabama in 1946 and had been
planning for a citywide boycott of buses long before the incident
involving Rosa Parks.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts - 13: The WPC had reported abuses on
the buses, protested that the city did not hire any black bus
drivers and complained that bus stops in black neighborhoods were
farther apart than in white neighborhoods, although blacks were 75%
of the passengers. The Montgomery City Commission had ignored all
complaints against the segregated bus system
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts - 14: Jo Ann Robinson, the leader of
the WPC consulted with E.D. Nixon, the president of the NAACP, and,
with the consent of Rosa Parks, agreed that it was the right time to
launch the Montgomery bus boycott.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts - 15: Handbills were
quickly printed and distributed asking blacks to boycott
the buses on the following Monday, December 5, in
support of Rosa Parks.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts - 16: By the night of
Friday
December 1, 1955,
word of the boycott had spread all over the city.
All black men, women
and children stayed off the buses for the whole of
Monday, December 5.
Not one black person traveled on a Montgomery bus that
day.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts - 17: The one-day
boycott was so successful that the organizers met on
Monday night and decided to continue their protest. The
Montgomery Improvement Association was established to
organize the boycott and 26 year old Reverend Martin
Luther King, Jr. was elected as its president.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts - 18: The Montgomery Bus
Boycott was to last for just over a year, 381 days
from December 5, 1955
to December 20th, 1956.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts - 19: During this time
the boycotters endured considerable hardship. 75% of the
black population of Montgomery traveled by bus, Very few
had cars, but those that did organized car pools to help
each other. Black taxi drivers charged their black
customers the same fee as a bus ride. There were so few
taxis and pool cars that most had no potion but to walk
to work during the
Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts -
20: Donations for the
participants in the
Montgomery Bus Boycott came in
from across the country, including shoes to replace the
worn-out footwear of those who walked for miles to work,
college and school. Some people were assaulted on their
walks, and the home of Reverend Martin Luther King was
firebombed.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts -
21: About two months
after the Montgomery Bus Boycott began, civil rights
activists sought case law to challenge the
constitutional legitimacy of Montgomery and Alabama bus
segregation laws. The Rosa Parks case was discounted
fearing it would be tied up in the courts of
Alabama.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts -
22: NAACP lawyers,
Clifford Durr, Robert Carter and Thurgood Marshall,
needed a way to get directly to federal courts. They
brought a lawsuit on behalf of women who had been
discriminated against by drivers enforcing segregation
policy in the Montgomery bus system.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts -
23: Aurelia Browder,
Claudette Colvin, Susie McDonald and Mary Louise Smith
agreed to be plaintiffs in a federal civil action
lawsuit, thus bypassing the Alabama court system. The
name of Aurelia Browder was alphabetically at the top of
the list of plaintiffs so the case is known as Browder
vs. Gayle.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts -
24: The list of
defendants included Mayor William A. Gayle (hence the
name Browder vs. Gayle), Montgomery City Lines, two bus
drivers, the city’s chief of police, Montgomery’s Board
of Commissioners and representatives of the Alabama
Public Service Commission
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts -
25: The legal case of
Browder vs. Gayle challenged the constitutionality of a
state statute and was brought before a three-judge U.S.
District Court panel. On 5 June 1956, the three-judge
panel ruled two-to-one that segregation on Alabama’s
intrastate buses was unconstitutional, citing
Brown vs Board of Education
as precedent for the verdict.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts -
26: Martin Luther King
acknowledged the victory but called for a continuation
of the Montgomery bus boycott until the ruling had been
implemented.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts -
27: City and state
appeals were made to the Supreme Court but were rejected
on December 17, 1956. Three days later, the order for
integrated buses arrived in Montgomery.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts -
28: On December 20,
1956 Martin Luther King, and the Montgomery Improvement
Association, voted to end the 381-day Montgomery bus
boycott, and the Montgomery buses were integrated the
following day.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts -
29: Rosa Parks
recalled that her refusal wasn't because she was
physically tired, but that she was tired of giving in.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts -
30: Rosa Parks stand
against racial discrimination sparked the Montgomery bus
boycott and led to the establishment of the Civil Rights
Movement.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Facts for kids
Montgomery Bus Boycott - President Dwight Eisenhower Video
The article on the Montgomery Bus Boycott provides detailed facts and a summary of one of the important events during his presidential term in office. The following
Dwight Eisenhower video will
give you additional interesting facts and dates about his presidency.
Montgomery Bus Boycott - Rosa Parks
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Facts about the Montgomery Bus Boycott for kids and schools
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Summary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in US history
●
The Montgomery Bus Boycott, a major
event in US history
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Montgomery Bus Boycott and Rosa Parks
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Fast, fun facts about the Montgomery Bus Boycott
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Foreign & Domestic
policies of President Dwight Eisenhower
● Dwight Eisenhower Presidency and
Montgomery Bus Boycott and Rosa Parks for schools,
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