Black Civil Rights in America Case Study – Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycotts

Today’s Lesson:

• Cloze Activity

• Background: Slavery to Segregation in America

• Case Study: Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycotts

• Conclusion: Accomplishments, significance and impact !

• Freeze Frame Activity

• Cloze Activity

Cloze Key: Rosa Parks and ‘the Day on the Bus’

Rosa Parks worked as a seamstress. Like all Negroes in 1955, she was supposed to ride in the back of the bus. One day, she refused to get out of her seat to let a white person sit down in her row. She was arrested by a policeman and taken to jail. As a result, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began. Blacks got to work, not by riding the bus, but by walking, riding mules, or by riding in carpools. Martin Luther King helped to organize the boycott, he believed in non-violent protest. Rosa Parks was simply tired of being treated badly because of the color of her skin. Rosa Parks died in 2005 at the age of 92. Today it is illegal to have segregated buses.

Segregation:

- The policy or practice of separating people of different races, classes or ethnic groups in public or commercial facilities, as a form of discrimination

- The act or process of segregating or the condition of being segregated.

(thefreedictionary.com)

Slavery to Segregation in the USA

- Slavery satisfied economic needs of labour

But things were looking up…

- The Emancipation Proclamation abolished slavery and was embodied in the constitution in 1865

- 1866 Civil Rights Act was established to protect blacks from discrimination

All the while, in the SouthThings aren’t looking so good …

• The infamous “Black Codes” replaced the social controls of slavery, becoming laws of the state.

• Socially, the formation of the KKK in 1865 displayed the Southern views of pro-segregation and discrimination.

• During the 1870-80’s the Supreme Court struggled with the legacy of emancipation which allowed for individual states to implement segregation legally.

• Southern state governments were careful not to trigger Federal involvement, slowly implementing the “Jim Crow System”

The “Jim Crow System”• Not only laws, social principles - Stetson Kennedy, Jim Crow

Guide; never assert a white person is lying, never laugh at or demonstrate intelligence over a white person.

• Alabama became a “Jim Crow State” enacting segregation laws such as the *bus law* requiring all transportation companies to have “separate waiting rooms or space and separate ticket windows for the white and colored races”.

• Other laws included those regarding nursing of blacks, segregated education, prisons, militias, burial sites, libraries, etc.

• 1896 Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson ruled that segregation of railway cars was constitutional as long as they were equal – establishing precedent …

• “Separate but equal”

• 1901 Constitution, white supremacy was evident and implemented - Jim Crow laws became entrenched in the constitution.

Things begin to look up again…

• WWII • President Roosevelt legally de-segregated the Army

in 1941 and in the Navy in 1942

• Blacks who returned home from the war were more determined than ever to achieve de-segregation

• This also set new precedent that de-segregation was both possible and more realistic than ever

Case Study:Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycotts

• A 42 year old seamstress from Montgomery, Alabama• An active member of NAACP

• Dec. 1, 1955 convicted of violating the laws of segregation

• Appealed the conviction, formally challenging the laws of segregation, sparking huge civil rights movements across America in support if her case

The Boycotts• Within hours of Mrs. Park’s arrest E.D. Nixon, an NAACP leader,

contacted other black leaders suggesting a boycott of the city buses.

• On December 2nd, a leader’s conference was held at Dexter Avenue church.

• It was agreed to launch a one-day boycott on Monday, December 5th.

• Within 48 hours leaflets were on the streets telling blacks not to ride the bus ‘any place’ on Dec 5th.

The Call for a Boycott, December 5th

Success …• Of the 50,000 black people living in Montgomery, only 10 rode the

bus on the 5th.

• Black citizens walked, rode mules, and formed car pools.

• The City’s 18 black taxi companies carried passengers at bus fare prices .

• White housewives also drove their black domestic servants to work.

• Black churches raised money to support the boycott, shoes were also donated to the cause.

The boycott was almost 100% effective, a “Miracle”, black leaders were encouraged by this

and prolonged the protest.

Keeping the Momentum going

• Following the success of the boycott, leaders within the black community drew up a set of mild demands to be presented to the city.

• The boycott was being used as a bargaining tool.

• Demands included abolishing segregation, courteous treatment of black people on buses, and the employment of black bus drivers.

• The Montgomery Improvement Association was formed to administer the boycott.

• Dr Martin Luther King was elected as president of this association.

Significance and Impact‘Taking a stand by sitting down”

1.) Catalyst for Black Civil Rights Movement

2) Successful Non-Violent Protest

3) Emergence of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycotts proved to be a CATALYST…

• Launched civil rights movements

• Power of the individual

• Unlikely icon … the “First Lady of Civil Rights”

Non-Violent Protest and its Successes

• Sit-ins - Greensboro, North Carolina (February 1960)

• Marches – March on Washington ( August 28, 1963)

• Marches – Selma, Alabama (March 1965)

Martin Luther King Jr.• Charismatic Leader & Icon of Civil Rights Movement.

• Elected President of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) in 1955 & the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957.

• Awarded Nobel Prize – December 1964.

• Assassinated – April 4, 1965.

I Have a Dream …- Martin Luther King Jr.

• “And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

• “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”

• “I have a dream today!”

Freeze Frame

Cloze key: Black Civil Rights in AmericaSegregation was put into place to govern black involvement in the

community after the emancipation proclamation. Although there were many changes in black civil rights through the 1800’s, by 1901 the concept of white supremacy was widely accepted and enforced by the government. Rosa parks was a pivotal figure in the fight for civil rights for the African American community in America, sparking some big changes in the 1950-60’s.

The arrest of Mrs. Parks gave the black people of Montgomery the perfect opportunity to take a stance against racial segregation. Only ten blacks rode the bus on the day of the initial boycott. The city’s 18 black taxi companies supported the boycott by carrying the passengers at bus fair prices. Martin Luther King referred to the boycott as a miracle.

Martin Luther King, Jr. emerged as a civil rights leader as a result of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Sit-ins/Boycotts/Marches were examples of non-violent protest that characterized the struggle for black civil rights. The Montgomery Bus Boycott served as a catalyst for launching the campaign for black civil rights in America.