Assess The Role Played By The Montgomery Bus Boycott In The Struggle For Civil Rights In America
Assess the role played by The Montgomery Bus Boycott in the struggle for civil rights in America
1954 - 1965
Montgomery is the state capital. It was one of the most segregated cities in the USA in the 1950s. In 1954, the US Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka destroyed the legal basis for segregation in education. However, in the southern states of the USA Jim Crow Laws continued to enforce segregation and discrimination against black Americans in housing, transport and various public facilities.
In Montgomery a black person was not allowed hold public office. Thousands of blacks were denied voting rights because of poll tax they could not afford, as the average annual income of a black worker in Montgomery in 1950 was $970, half the income of the average white worker. Literacy tests and Intimidation also prevented blacks from voting.
For Blacks living in Montgomery, segregation was a fact of everday living. By law, blacks and whites had to use separate facilities in public places such as parks and theatres. A local law even forbade blacks and whites to play cards, dice or dominoes together, the gap of separation was widening with each passing day.
There were over 50 churches catering for black congregations in and around Montgomery. Most black church leaders preached acceptance of the system. They focused on the spiritual needs of the congregation and not on social or political reform.
By the end of 1955, however, an event occurred in Montgomery which would become the starting point of the first organised and mass movement of black Americans in twentieth-century America. This event involved segregation on the city’s buses and was led by the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People and some progressive black leaders.
In Montgomery, it was the law that black people travelling on the buses could not sit at the front, even if the seats there were not occupied. The first four rows of seats were reserved for whites only.
1954 - 1965
Montgomery is the state capital. It was one of the most segregated cities in the USA in the 1950s. In 1954, the US Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka destroyed the legal basis for segregation in education. However, in the southern states of the USA Jim Crow Laws continued to enforce segregation and discrimination against black Americans in housing, transport and various public facilities.
In Montgomery a black person was not allowed hold public office. Thousands of blacks were denied voting rights because of poll tax they could not afford, as the average annual income of a black worker in Montgomery in 1950 was $970, half the income of the average white worker. Literacy tests and Intimidation also prevented blacks from voting.
For Blacks living in Montgomery, segregation was a fact of everday living. By law, blacks and whites had to use separate facilities in public places such as parks and theatres. A local law even forbade blacks and whites to play cards, dice or dominoes together, the gap of separation was widening with each passing day.
There were over 50 churches catering for black congregations in and around Montgomery. Most black church leaders preached acceptance of the system. They focused on the spiritual needs of the congregation and not on social or political reform.
By the end of 1955, however, an event occurred in Montgomery which would become the starting point of the first organised and mass movement of black Americans in twentieth-century America. This event involved segregation on the city’s buses and was led by the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People and some progressive black leaders.
In Montgomery, it was the law that black people travelling on the buses could not sit at the front, even if the seats there were not occupied. The first four rows of seats were reserved for whites only.