Rosa Parks

On December 1st 1955 a woman by the name of Rosa parks had gotten on the bus. She sat in the fifth row which was the first row of the "colored section". The custom for blacks getting on the bus was for them to pay there fair and the re-enter the bus from the back and sometime the driver would just drive off before they could even re-enter the bus. The bus began to fill with whites; the driver had asked some blacks to move back. Three moved back but Rosa stayed. Then the buss driver said to her if she was going to move. She replied to him "no I am not "(quote taken from quiet strength parks page 23) then she was told well that he was going to have to call the police and have them arrest her and she replied "you may go on and do that" (dove rita " on the bus with rosa parks www.time.com date of interenet publication not given went to sight 3/30/05 www.time.com/time/time100/heroes/profile/parks01.html).

On the weekend of December 3 and 4th Ralph Abernathy and martin Luther king met with the head of the women's political council. There purpose was to plan a large boycott against the Montgomery city bus lines. (the montgomery bus boycott publication date not given wentr to sight on 3/30/05 http://campus.northpark.edu/history//webchron/usa/montbus.cp.html). During the Montgomery bus boycott one of the buses used by the freedom riders was fire bombed by a mob of white people outside of Birmingham.

The boycott began on that Monday December 5th. The boycott was an immediate success. About 90 percent the people who took the bus to work or school joined the boycott and found other way to get were they were going. Late that evening the black leaders of the community held another meeting and formed an organization called the M.IA (Montgomery improvement association). Martin Luther king Jr was elected president of the organization. The bus boycott continued until 1956 about a year.

The Montgomery bus boycott was a very significant even in the civil rights movement. That went on between the years 1950's through the 1960's. The boycott was very important for many reason it caught the attention on the whole nation. It was mostly important because it set the mood for the whole civil rights movement. The movement set the stage for martin Luther king to become a political leader. He also showed the non violent method of protest was best. During the boycott they handed out paper the asked all blacks not to ride the bus on Monday to help with this struggle.

As the boycott continued newspapers from every were writing about it. Many African Americans were walking in the streets this was called 'the walking city'. During the boycott the M.I.A came up with there 0wn ways of transportation. It took a lot just to keep the boycott going. Rosa parks also spent a lot of her time working on car pooling. She helped draw out timetables and pickup's and drops off's. Due to the boycott the white people had to pay higher bus fairs to make up for the money that the company lost because of the blacks not riding the bus. In January 1956 the city commissioners tried to trick the blacks into getting back on the bus by telling the newspaper's a false story that the protest was over. But before the story reached the news stands the M.I.A. leaders heard about the trick. The police commissioners keep bulling the black into stopping the boycott. The police would even stopped car-pools for even minor violations, like speeding or even traffic violation even when they did nothing wrong. Even martin Luther king was arrested for speeding and was locked up in jail for a few hours. Even arresting and tickets could not scare the protestors. Also even before the boycott black drivers were treated badly. By February 1956 there was not sign that they were going to give in on any of the M.I.A demands. Rosa parks trial kept going it seemed to have no end because they kept putting of a date for a new