How the Black Citizens of Montgomery Achieved Justice Essay

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Montgomery Bus Boycott

"We are sorry that the colored people blame us for any state or city ordinance which we didn't have passed ... we had nothing to do with the laws being passed, but we expect to abide by all laws, city or state ... " (Montgomery City Lines Superintendent J.H. Bagley, quoted on December 3, 1955, in the Montgomery Advertiser daily newspaper).

That quote may be reminiscent of the classic excuse, "We were just doing our jobs," but so were the thousands of African-American folks who were determined to change the way they were treated in Alabama and in the Jim Crow South. To wit, there were many positive events and memorable instances in the campaigns that represented the justice that African-Americans were seeking -- and achieved -- by basically doing their jobs to bring justice in the 1950s during the Civil Rights Movement. This paper focuses on the Montgomery Bus Boycott, events leading up to it, the energy and commitment that sustained it, and the outcome. Thesis: As important and vital as the Montgomery Bus Boycott was to the Civil Rights Movement and to the justice that African-Americans had sought in this concerted effort, the boycott, in hindsight, also represents the power that humans create when they engage in collective action for important social change.

How the Boycott Began

University of Tennessee Professor of Communications Felicia McGhee writes that a few days before J.H. Bagley of the Montgomery City Lines was quoted in the local paper, Rosa Parks had refused to give up her seat to a white man. "Her actions violated the city's bus segregation laws, and she was subsequently arrested for disorderly conduct"[footnoteRef:1] (McGhee, 2015). And while most accounts of the launch of the Montgomery Bus Boycott (MBB) give Rosa Parks total credit for having the courage to stand up to Jim Crow laws, several months earlier two other African-American women, Claudette Colvin and Mary Louise Smith were arrested for "similar actions" in Montgomery (McGhee, 252). [1: Felicia McGhee, "The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Fall of the Montgomery City Lines." The Alabama Review, 68(3), July 2015.]

Meanwhile, thanks to these three brave women, the boycott was underway, and it lasted 381 days, ending when the United States Supreme Court ruled that Montgomery's " ... segregated bus system was unconstitutional" (McGhee, 252). It cost the bus company an estimated $750,000 in losses from which they never recovered; thanks to many of the 44,000 black residents of Montgomery participating in the boycott, social changes were made and some semblance of justice was achieved.

A Look at the Past

In journalist Juan Williams' book, Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years 1954-1965, the author notes that well before the Civil Rights Movement, " ... black abolitionists failed to stem the rising crest of white racism after Reconstruction."[footnoteRef:2] Unfortunately the U.S. Congress allowed the white South to keep blacks pinned down in a state of " ... peonage, to disregard their civil rights, and to disenfranchise them by force, intimidation, and statute" (Williams). The Supreme Court upheld Jim Crow laws and as a result "southern blacks became increasingly vulnerable to physical assault and murder," Williams writes, adding that over a thousand blacks were lynched between 1900 and 1915. [2: Juan Williams, Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years 1954-1965. (New York: Penguin, 2013). ]

In the 1920s there was a flicker of hope for justice for black folks; it was witnessed through the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Renaissance, and the New Negro Movement; and when W.E.B. Du Bois helped launch the NAACP (with his brilliant writing featured in his monthly journal, The Crisis) blacks began to make demands of Congress (Williams).

Labor unions helped blacks get some political muscle; Philip Randolph was a strong voice for justice; and President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive order 8802 which " ... established the President's Committee on Fair Employment Practices" (Williams). The president's directive made it illegal to discriminate in employment practices by unions and other companies with government contracts; by 1945, black membership in labor unions was a healthy 1,250,000 (Williams). So, it is clear there were signs of hope within the black community that there was light at the end of the tunnel as far as fairness, justice, and achieving the American Dream.

The Boycott was a Difficult Path to Take

On February 21, 1956, the Montgomery Grand Jury indicted eighty-nine blacks for "conspiring to boycott" (boycotts were illegal by state law), and those indicted included Rev. Martin Luther King and twenty-four other ministers[footnoteRef:3] (Sitkoff, 2008).

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Also in March of 1956, 100 U.S. Congressmen signed what was called the "Southern Manifesto," which was a protest against the Supreme Court's decision on school desegregation (announced ten months earlier). It was clear; much of the political establishment saw the boycott as a breaking of rules by uppity African-Americans in the South. [3: Harvard Sitkoff, The Struggle for Black Equality. (New York: Macmillian, 2008). ]

Black citizens teamed up to carpool and help each out with transportation needs, and that helped the boycott sustain momentum, Sitkoff writes. There were acts of violence against blacks in Montgomery, including snipers firing at buses (once the Supreme Court had ruled that segregation in transportation was not legal); also Rev. Ralph Abernathy (SCLC) had his home and church bombed. Four other black churches were bombed, and the homes of two black pastors were bombed as well (Sitkoff).

In his book, Strive Toward Freedom, Martin Luther King wrote: "The story of Montgomery is the story of 50,000 negroes who were willing to substitute tired feed for tired souls, and walk the streets of Montgomery until the walls of segregation were finally battered by the forces of justice!" (Sitkoff).

Daybreak of Freedom

Stanford University historian Stewart Burns has put together a book containing many stories, letters, quotes and other background related to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. A letter to the editor of The Advertiser by ordinary citizen, Mrs. Myron C. Lobman, notes that Montgomery has always had the reputation as a "city of good will, pleasant living and cordial relations between the races"[footnoteRef:4] (Burns, 1997). Mrs. Lobman went on to express her belief that the Negro Improvement Association (the group that organized the boycott) would be " ... willing to compromise, and are not asking a violation of the segregation laws" (Burns). [4: Steward Burns. Daybreak of Freedom: The Montgomery Bus Boycott. (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1997) ]

Her letter was written on January 2, 1956, and she disapproved of " ... the threatening ads of the Central Alabama Citizens Council" (the opponents of the boycott) " ... certainly do not help the situation nor tend to solve it. Threats have never solved any problem" (Burns).

As to the possibility of a compromise on the part of the boycott leaders, U.J. Fields wrote a letter to the editor of The Advertiser saying:

"Be it known, now, henceforth and forever, that the Negros of Montgomery

have no desire to compromise in this 'bus situation.' We should have demanded complete integration which does away with Jim Crow, and what our constitutional rights guarantee all American citizens ... Jim

Crow and discrimination being practices here in the South is on its

deathbed" (Burns).

Another historical document that Burns presents is taken from an Executive Board Meeting in the Baptist Center in Montgomery on February 2, 1956. Rev. Martin Luther King was presiding, and he discussed the violence that had been visited on the boycott leaders and the lawsuit that was to be filed. These words ring powerful all these years later, with the knowledge that the bus boycott opened the doors to the beginning of the end of Jim Crow laws. King is speaking:

"We got to decide how the suit will be handled. There has been an increase in the amount of violence in recent days. Fortunately no one was injured; that was very fortunate. I don't know the motives, whether along line of fear tactics, or attempts at bodily harm. They may become more desperate with the suit on. We need right now a committee of 50 people who will volunteer to patrol all of the churches where mass meetings are being held (before and during). Look for time bombs and the like. Now this mustn't get to the people, because it might panic them and they may not come. I'm not saying these things will happen ... but the minute it was announced the [Montgomery

County] commissioners had joined the White Citizens Council, we received 20-25-30 threatening calls each day. We're not going to give up ... they can drop bombs in my house every day. I'm firmer now than ever" (Burns, 148).

An article in the peer-reviewed American Bar Foundation brings back to mind the thesis of this paper at the outset. Social change and bringing about social change has several dynamics, several key parts, and there is.....

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