Causes/Consequences of the Montgomery Bus Boycott

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a campaign that is officially considered to have lasted from December 1st 1955, and lasted for 381 days until December 20th 1956. The reason for the campaign was to achieve de-segregation on all Montgomery, Alabama busses, and then later all busses in America This essay will outline three causes, three consequences and other relevant information relating to this campaign.

The Jim Crowe laws were the initial reason that the busses were segregated. The Jim Crowe laws were a set of laws that affected America (particularly the South) from the late 1800’s and were not legally abolished until 1964. The laws enforced the idea that all black and white people were to be segregated, and the term ‘separate but equal’ was preached as a way to make it seem like this was an acceptable thing to do. The laws were introduced at a time where America was still very racially divided following the civil war and abolishment of slavery, and extreme white supremacy was very prominent in society. Although ‘separate but equal’ was preached, in reality it was anything but. White people were given much superior treatment, better resources and in general the rules did not effect them negatively as much as they did black people. Black people were given poor resources and finding, and it was extremely hard for them to achieve basic, constitutional rights such as voting. Since Montgomery was a small town, there was not enough money to have fully segregated bus services, so instead of there being a black bus and a white bus like in big cities, there was one bus that was separated into black and white sections. The white people got to sit at the front, but black people had to get on at the front of the bus, pay, and then exit the bu...

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... groups were that they were both White Supremacist Organizations that were pro Jim Crowe laws. The main difference was that the KKK were generally people of less educated and lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and the group was formed after the civil war and abolishment of slavery as an act of protest against black people taking jobs, and their protests were usually always violent. The WCC was a group of middle and upper class people who used their authoritative positions within the society (such as teachers, lawyers, bank managers) to discriminate against and generally make life harder for black people. Both groups were unhappy with the boycott and desegregation, and made life very hard for those involved. Eventually, white retaliation got so dangerous that Rosa Parks and her family had to leave Alabama and move north to Detroit eight months after the boycott ended.