History shows that all protest movements rely on symbols - boycotts, strikes, sit-ins, flags, songs. Symbolic action on whatever scale - from the Tallahassee Bus Boycott to wearing a simple wristband - is designed to disrupt our everyday complacency and force people to think. You have to be careful how you're using the word boycott. Boycotters in Tallahassee achieved an important victory in the struggle for civil rights. On the date May 26, 1956, two female students from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson, had taken a seat down in the whites only section of a segregated bus in the city of Tallahassee, Florida. When these women refused to move to the colored section at the very back of the bus, the driver had decided to pull over into a service station and call the police on them. Tallahassee police arrested them and charged them with the accusation of them placing themselves in a position to incite a riot. In the days after that immediately followed these arrests, students at the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University organized a huge campus-wide boycott of all of the city buses. Their inspiring stand against segregation set an example and an intriguing idea that had spread to tons of Tallahassee citizens who were thinking the same things and brought a change of these segregating ways into action. Soon, news of the this boycott spread throughout the whole entire community rapidly. Reverend C.K. Steele composed the formation of an organization known as the Inter-Civic Council (ICC) to manage the logic and other events happening behind the boycott. C.K. Steele and the other leaders created the ICC because of the unfounded negative publicity surrounding the National Associat... ... middle of paper ... ...ial/boycott/timeline.html>. The Tallahassee Democrat; "The Pain and the Promise: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Tallahassee, Florida," by Glenda Alice Rabby; and research by Mike Pope, former Democrat letters editor. Hugh Evans. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved February 4, 2014, from BrainyQuote.com Web site: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/hughevans542685.html "Quizlet." Tallahassee Bus Boycott 1956. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2014. . Hooks, Bell. "Civil Rights." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2014. . Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem. "Civil Rights." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2014.
In the book, Colaiaco presents the successes that Dr. King achieves throughout his work for Civil Rights. The beginning of Dr. King’s nonviolent civil rights movements started in Montgomery, Alabama when Rosa Parks refused to move for a white person, violating city’s transportation rules. After Parks was convicted Dr. King, who was 26 at the time, was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). “For 381 days, thousands of blacks walked to work, some as many as 12 miles a day, rather than continue to submit to segregated public transportation” (18). This boycott ended up costing the bus company more than $250,000 in revenue. The bus boycott in Montgomery made King a symbol of racial justice overnight. This boycott helped organize others in Birmingham, Mobile, and Tallahassee. During the 1940s and 1950s the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) won a series of cases that helped put it ahead in the civil rights movement. One of these advancements was achieved in 1944, when the United States Supreme Court banned all-white primaries. Other achievements made were the banning of interstate bus seating segregating, the outlawing of racially restraining covenants in housing, and publicly supporting the advancement of black’s education Even though these advancements meant quite a lot to the African Americans of this time, the NAACP’s greatest accomplishment came in 1954 with the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Brown vs. Board of Education case, which overturned the Plessy vs.
This documentary is based on Raymond Arsenault’s book “Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice”. It was a radical idea organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) that alarmed not only those who challenged the civil rights but also deliberately defied Jim Crows Law that were enacted between 1876 and 1965, by challenging the status quo by riding the interstate buses in the South in mixed racial groups. This law segregated public services like public transportation, public places, public schools, restrooms, restaurants, and even drinking fountains for black and whites. Though these activists were faced by various bitter racism, mob violence and imprisonment, they were successful in desegregating the buses and bus facilities in the Deep South in September 22, 1961. They strove for nonviolent protest for justice and freedom of African Americans freedom.
The bus boycott succeed because the black people stood up for what they thought was right, they did not use violence, they did not fight back, they fought smart, and they fought right. See many of the white people abuse the power that they had by making the blacks give up their seats after long days of work, and making them go to the back of the store to purchase food and other items. They treated them different because they didn’t have the same skin tone, but little did they know that on December 1st 1955 everything was about to change; one day on the bus ride home when Rosa Parks decided that she was not going to stand and let a young white man have her seat after a long day at work, she was arrested.
The boycott was developed mainly by Dr. Martin Luther King and led to success after several months. Hence, the movement strengthened and gained respect and attention. African-Americans continued struggling in compliance with Dr. Kings non-violent demonstrations and protests. They continued demanding their rights with the weapon of peace and love. Dr. King was not only the leader of the movement, but also he was its voice and he formed and identified the movement ideally.
In 1947, the Supreme Court ruled that segregration on interstate bus rides was unconsitutional. As a response, the Congress of Racial Equality—also known as CORE—and the Fellowship of Reconciliation decided to arrange interracial and bus rides across state lines. The Journey of Reconciliation, as they were called, focused on the rampant bus segregration of the upper South, but avoided the more dangerous and risky areas of the deep south. Unfortunatly, there was a lack of media attention and, ultimatly, CORE's goals went unnoticed. In 1961, however, new—and sucessful—Freedom Rides were actualized. CORE partnered with student activists to continue previous efforts made to fight segregated bus rides and bus terminals. On May 4, 1961, two buses began the trip from Washington DC to New Orleans. They riders were met with little resistance and violence until they arrived in Rockhill, South Caroilina. There were many voilent beatings and arrests of the riders. The events in Rockhill, South Carolina initiated the national media coverage of the rides. On May 14, the Freedom Rides arrived in Anniston, Alabama. There, the riders were met with a violent mob of regular citizens and Ku Klux Klan members. Local authorites, lead by Birmingham Commissioner of Public Safety Eugene “Bull” Connor—who was known as an ultra-seg...
This is not only shown by the successful nature of the bus boycott, but it is shown through the success of Martin Luther King’s SCLC, or Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The conference was notable for peaceful protesting, nonviolence, and civil disobedience. Thanks to the SCLC, sit-ins and boycotts became popular during this time, adding to the movement’s accomplishments. The effective nature of the sit-in was shown during 1960 when a group of four black college students sat down at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in hopes of being served. While they were not served the first time they commenced their sit-in, they were not forced to leave the establishment; their lack of response to the heckling and ill-treatment they received inspired blacks throughout the deep South to imitate their actions....
Levy, Peter B., The Civil RIghts Movement, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, 1998. Web. 24 June 2015.
Sobel, Lester A. “Vote Campaign in Selma.” Civil Rights 1960-66. New York: Facts on File 1967.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a Civil Rights Movement which tried stopping racial discrimination on busses, and other public transportation. The cause of the “Montgomery Bus Boycott”, was the Jim Crow Laws. “In 1883, the Supreme Court ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was unconstitutional; the Jim Crow Era began in 1877.”, says History.com. In the
On December First 1955 Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery Alabama because she wouldn’t give up her bus seat so white passengers could sit there. Because of Rosa’s arrest the Montgomery Bus Boycott began. During this time African Americans in Montgomery at the time refused to ride city’s buses in protest of the city’s racial segregation. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. endorsed non violent civil disobedience and came to be the leader of the boycott. The boycott lasted three hundred and eighty one days until a ruling by the Supreme Court stated that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional. This boycott was a success, and it inspired other civil rights activists across the nation.
In America, it is the job of both the government and the people to uphold laws and justice. If the government and the people does not maintain this responsibility our representative democracy could disperse into a system that do not represent the people and could lead to anarchy. Rosa Park’s arrest after her refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama caused the city of Montgomery to come together and participate in a bus boycott known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Due to the boycott, Montgomery had no choice but to remove the law of segregation on public buses. In Montgomery, bus drivers had the power to enforce the law of segregation on public buses. When an African American got onto a bus they would have to board
On December 1st Rosa Parks, an African-american woman refused to give her seat to a white man on a Montgomery Bus. She was arrested for refusing to give-up her seat to the man even though it was considered a black seat. Four days later a boycott began where all African-American avoided and refused to use the Montgomery Buses, they walked everywhere they needed or even set up car pools. The protesting African-Americans ended up causing a financial struggle for Montgomery to the point where buses were going out of business, seeing that African-Americans were there main source of income.
Boycotts could be aimed to cause financial losses. An example of this was the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was a direct result of the arrest of
However, by the end of the 20th Century, women, blacks, and other minorities could be found in the highest echelons of American Society. From the corporate offices of IBM, to the U.S. Supreme Court bench, an obvious ideological revolution bringing integration and acceptance of a variety of human beings had taken place, but only at the expense of great amounts of sweat and blood.... ... middle of paper ... ... Blacks walked miles to work, organized carpools, and despite efforts from the police to discourage this new spark of independence, the boycotts continued for more than a year until in November 1956 the Supreme Court ruled that the Montgomery bus company must desegregate its busses.
Robinson, Jo Ann Gibson, and David J. Garrow. The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: the Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson. Knoxville: University of Tennessee, 1987. Print.