Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955
By: Mckenzie, Trevor, and Sterling
What Was Happening during this time?
Why did African Americans do this?
Who was involved?
Jo Ann Robinson
Jo Ann Robinson helped organize 40,000 people within just 2 days. She handed out flyers to everyone she saw.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. gave an inspiring speech saying "If we are wrong, the constitution of the United States is wrong."
Ralph Abernathy
He helped to organize the Montgomery bus boycott.
What would you do if you were being discrimated aganist?
What was the ending Result? Why did the african Americans do this?
How did this event contribute to the Civil Rights movement as a whole? How did it lead to furture events?
Other Information
- When the boycott began, no one expected it to last long. But it ended up lasting over 1 year. The whites would try and end it in every way possible.
- One often-used method was to try to divide the black community. On January 21, 1956, the City Commission met with three non-MIA black ministers and proposed a "compromise," which was basically the system already in effect. The ministers accepted, and the commission leaked (false) reports to a newspaper that the boycott was over. The MIA did not even hear of the compromise until a black reporter in the North who received a wire report phoned to ask if the Montgomery blacks had really settled for so little. By that time it was Saturday night. On Sunday morning Montgomery newspapers were going to print the news that the boycott was over and the city's blacks were going to believe it. When that effort to break up the boycott failed, whites turned to violence. King's home was bombed on January 30.
-Even though the Bus Boycott ended on December 20, 1956 and African American's were aloud to sit where they wanted, they were still in danger. Snipers were shot at buses and many African American's had their house bombed.