Montgomery Bus Boycott
On the day that Rosa Parks was arrested, the head of the local NAACP chapter, Ed Nixon, started organizing the boycott of the Montgomery city buses. In the black neighborhoods, the word was quickly spread by mouth, ads in the newspapers, and handbills. On December 5, 1955 African Americans were asked to stay off the buses in protest of Rosa Parks's arrest. The African American community were also urged to take the day off of work and school. If they couldn't skip a day of work, they were asked to either walk or take a cab to work or school. Many blacks believed if they boycott was prolonged, it might be successful.
Later that night, African American community leaders met at Mt. Zion to discuss strategies to continue to boycott. The leaders decided they needed a new organization, led by strong leadership, that was completely devoted to the boycott and improving the treatment of African Americans. The new organization was called the Montgomery Improvement Association. Dr. Martin Luther King was elected as the president. The MIA strongly believed that Rosa's arrest provided an excellent opportunity to take further action and create real change. The boycotted continued with African Americans carpooling, taking African American driven cabs, or commuting on foot. As a result, a large number of Montgomery buses sat unused for months. The transit company's finances were severely suffering. Many segregationists tried to end the boycott by retaliating in violence and attacking Dr. Martin Luther King's and Ed Nixon's houses. They also tried to arrest blacks for violating and old law prohibiting boycotts.
The African American community also took legal action. A legal team took the issue of segregation on the public transit system to the federal court. In June of 1956, the federal court declared Alabama's racial segregation laws for public transit unconstitutional. The city appealed and on November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling. Because the transit company was suffering so much financial loss, and the legal system was ruling against them, Montgomery had no choice but to lift the law requiring segregation on public buses. The African American's determinism, in combination with legal action, made the 382-day Montgomery bus boycott one of the largest and most successful mass movements against racial segregation in history.