How Did The Montgomery Bus Boycott Impact The Civil Rights Movement

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King once described the Montgomery Bus Boycott as “our twelve months of glorious dignity”. This boycott was one of the defining events of the Civil Rights Movement. The Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955/19956) made a significant impact on the Civil Rights Movement in America, because the African Americans were able to achieve their goal of ending bus segregation in the majority of the southern states. African Americans struggled for racial equality in the 1950’s. Southern states passed the Jim Crows laws and it created a racial unfair system in American South. These laws discriminated against the blacks and created two separate societies; one black and one white. African Americans could not sit in the same theatre, drink from the same drinking fountain, …show more content…

The direct result the boycott of, as can been seen in this newspaper article (SOURCE 17) was that on November 13th 1965 bus segregation was knocked out. A federal ruling, Browder v. Gayle, took effect, and led to the Supreme Court declaring that Alabama’s bus segregation was unconstitutional. The boycott experienced such a degree of success because of the effectiveness from protesters displaying the nonviolent protest. King believed that a nonviolent protest was the only effective means of improving the conditions of blacks in the white oppressive society of America during this era. The Montgomery Bus Boycott significantly impacted on the wider Civil Rights Movement. It’s impact helped launch of what Roberta Wright called, “a 10-year national struggle for freedom and justice, the Civil Rights Movement that stimulated others to do the same at home and abroad." (SOURCE 5) The boycott was the real beginning of the Civil Right Movement and set the tone for the rest of the Civil Rights Movement. The boycott inspired action across the South. In using the word of an expert in history, “The Montgomery Bus Boycott became the first powerful example of what ordinary African Americans could achieve.” (SOURCE 3) It showed that African Americans could win freedom victories themselves by taking nonviolent direct

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