The Montgomery Bus Boycott
...each other. The American civil rights movement began a long time ago, as early
as the seventeenth century, with blacks and whites all protesting slavery
together. The peak of the civil rights movement came in the 1950's starting
with the successful bus boycott in Montgomery Alabama. The civil rights
movement was lead by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who preached nonviolence and
love for your enemy.
"Love your enemies, we do not mean to love them as a friend or intimate. We
mean what the Greeks called agape-a disinterested love for all mankind. This
love is our regulating ideal and beloved community our ultimate goal. As we
struggle here in Montgomery, we are cognizant that we have cosmic companionship
and that the universe bends toward justice. We are moving from the black night
of segregation to the bright daybreak of joy, from the midnight of Egyptian
captivity to the glittering light of Canaan freedom"
explained Dr. King.
In the Cradle of the Confederacy, life for the white and the colored
citizens was completely segregated. Segregated schools, restaurants, public
water fountains, amusement parks, and city buses were part of 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...
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