Montgomery bus boycott

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The bus where it all started.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a major event in the Civil Rights Movement. It happened in Montgomery, Alabama where the city transportation were segregated. Black passengers were required by law to ride in the back of the bus. On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks, an African American woman, refused to give her bus seat to a white person. She was arrested and sent to jail and was fined 14 dollars.[1] In protest about 40,000[2] black people boycotted the Montgomery city buses, refusing to ride. The boycott lasted 381 days.[3] On November 13, 1956, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision to desegregate the buses and implemented a first come first serve policy.[4] In response the city of Montgomery passed a law allowing black passengers to sit anywhere on the buses. The boycott ended on December 20, 1956. Many important people in the civil rights movement took part in the boycott. This included Reverend Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ralph Abernathy.[5]

References[change | change source]

  1. "Civil Rights for Kids: Montgomery Bus Boycott". www.ducksters.com. Retrieved 2018-03-13.
  2. "Montgomery Bus Boycott". history.com/. A+E Networks. 2010. Retrieved 26 April 2016. Approximately 40,000 African-American bus riders–the majority of the city's black bus riders–boycotted the system [on December 5, 1955].
  3. Joyce A. Hanson, Rosa Parks: A Biography (Westport, CT: Greenwood; Brighton: Roundhouse, 2010.), p. xi
  4. Project C: Montgomery Bus Boycott | Project C | PBS, retrieved 2018-03-13
  5. Cheryl Fisher Phibbs, The Montgomery Bus Boycott: A History and Reference Guide (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2009), p. 89