The Montgomery Bus Boycott

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everyday life in
Montgomery, Alabama.
“Every person operating a bus line should provide equal
accommodations...in such a manner as to separate the white people from Negroes."
On Montgomery's buses, black passengers were required by city law to sit in the
back of the segregated bus. Negroes were required to pay their fare at the
front of the bus, then get off and reboard from the rear of the bus. The front
row seats were reserved for white people, which left the back of the bus or no
man's land for the black's. There was no sign declaring the seating
arrangements of the buses, but everyone knew them.
The Montgomery bus boycott started one of the greatest fights for civil
rights in the history of America. Here in the old capital of the Confederacy, “
inspired by one women's courage; mobilized and organized by scores of grass-
roots leaders in churches, community organizations, and political clubs; called
to new visions of their best possibilities by a young black preacher ...

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segregation and won. The victory in
Baton Rouge was a small one in comparison to other civil right battles and
victories. The hard work of Reverend Jemison and other organizers of the
boycott, had far reaching implications on a movement that was just starting to
take root in America. In 1954 the landmark case of Brown vs. Board of Education
of Topeka descion by the Supreme Court overshadowed Baton Rouge, but the ideas
and lessons were not forgotten. They were soon used 400 miles away in
Montgomery, Alabama, where the most important boycott of the civil rights
movement was about to begin.
The idea of separate but equal started in 1896 with a case called Plessy
v. Ferguson 163 U.S. 537 ...

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