The bus boycott and its importance in getting black civil rights.
Montgomery ,the capital of Alabama in the south of America was strictly segregated between black and white. Black people had to sit at the back of the bus, even if the front was empty. As most black people didn’t have cars, they were they heaviest users of public transport. Rosa parks a 42 year old black woman stepped on to a bus one day on December 1st , 1955 after a hard days work and was tired so sat down. After a while, a white man stepped on the bus and stood near her, expecting her to stand up, she refused to move. When ordered by the bus driver to give up her seat, Rosa remained seated. She was arrested and fined $10. when Rosa told her friends what had happened, they swung into action. Together with the backing of the local black churches, particularly the local Baptist church, run by the reverend martin Luther king, the city’s black leaders decided to advice all black resident in Montgomery to stop using the buses and to seek alternative means of transport until the bus company issued seats on a first come, first served basis. The entire black population in the city obeyed and car pooled, walked or cycled to work instead. The boycott got massive publicity and featured on the TV news. This was the first time the injustice of southern segregation was seen on northern TV. The black community received a lot of support for their non-violent approach. In November 1956, the supreme court ordered the buses to desegregate. The company had no choice but to obey or simply unfold.
This was the first major mass protest in witch black people, standing together, actually achieved a goal. In this case, an end to segregation on buses. It is also important because it raise the important because it raised the profile of Martin Luther king, who would later lead the civil rights movement and become the unofficial leader of black America .
What happened at little rock and how did it affect the civil right movement for blacks?
In 1957 president Eisenhower had to act to enforce the supreme court decision, so 9 intelligent black students were admitted to an all white high school in little rock, Arkansas the students were jeered by the white students and prevented from entering the building. The president sent in the troops to escort the students to school. This was the first mixed high school in the whole of the USA. This was significant because it forced the president, who would have preferred to do nothing, to take some action. In 1957 Eisenhower introduced the first civil rights since 1875. it set up a commission to prosecute anybody who tried to deny American citizens their rights. It attracted world wide attention and was on television screens across the USA. When Faubus closed all the schools in Arkansas in September 1958, he was forced to reopen them to black and white student by the supreme court. However in 1963 there were only 30,000 children at mixed schools in the south, out of 2,900,000 and none at all in Alabama, Mississippi or South Carolina.
