Lexington Herald Leader Logo

Merlene Davis: It's important to remember the lessons of the Montgomery bus boycott | Lexington Herald Leader

×
  • E-edition
  • Home
    • All News
    • Business
    • Communities
    • Counties
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Lexington
    • Local
    • Most Wanted
    • Nation/World
    • News Photos
    • News Videos
    • Politics
    • Searchable Databases
    • State
    • Watchdog
    • Columns
    • Tom Eblen
    • All Sports
    • UK Sports
    • College Sports
    • Next Cats Recruiting
    • High School
    • Horses
    • Kentucky Speedway
    • Lexington Legends
    • Reds
    • MLB
    • NBA
    • NASCAR
    • NFL
    • Sports Photos
    • Sports Videos
    • Columns
    • John Clay's Columns
    • Mark Story
    • Next Cats Recruiting
    • All UK Sports
    • Next Cats Recruiting
    • Baseball
    • Basketball - Men
    • Basketball - Women
    • Recruiting
    • Ex-Cats
    • Football
    • UK Photos
    • UK Videos
    • More UK Sports
    • Columns
    • John Clay's Blog
    • Mark Story
    • Politics
    • Elections
    • All Entertainment
    • Books
    • Celebrities
    • Comics
    • Puzzles & Games
    • Events Calendar
    • Horoscopes
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Restaurants
    • Stage & Dance
    • TV
    • Visual Arts
    • Entertainment Photos
    • Entertainment Videos
    • News Blogs
    • Kentucky Weather
    • Photo Archive
    • Sports Blogs
    • John Clay's Blog
    • High School
    • UK Football
    • UK Men's Basketball
    • UK Women's Basketball
    • Lexington Legends
    • Entertainment Blogs
    • Walter Tunis on Music
    • All Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Joel Pett
    • Letters to the Editor
    • National Columnists
    • Op-Ed
    • Submit a Letter
    • All Living
    • Celebrations
    • Family
    • Fashion
    • Food & Drink
    • Fru-Gal: Deb Morris
    • Health & Medicine
    • Home & Garden
    • Paul Prather
    • Religion
    • Travel
    • Readers' Choice
    • Kentucky Obituaries
    • Obituaries in the News
    • Submit an Obituary
    • Customer Service
    • Contact Us
    • About Us
    • E-edition
    • Page Reprints
    • Photo Reprints
    • RSS Feeds
    • Special Sections
    • Site Information
    • Advertise With Us
    • Archives
    • Mobile
    • Mobile Apps & eReaders
    • Newsletters
    • Social
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    • Google+
    • Today's Circulars
    • Classifieds
    • Jobs
    • Cars
    • Homes
    • Homeseller
    • Legal Notices
  • Place an Ad
  • Mobile & Apps

Community

Merlene Davis: It's important to remember the lessons of the Montgomery bus boycott

Merlene Davis - Herald-Leader columnist

    ORDER REPRINT →

December 04, 2013 02:53 PM

Fifty-eight years ago today, a majority of the black people living in Montgomery, Ala., decided they had had enough.

As my mother said, they were sick and tired of being sick and tired.

So, after the arrest of Rosa Parks on Dec. 1, 1955, for refusing to give her seat on a city bus to a white person, the Montgomery Improvement Association coordinated a bus boycott that started on Dec. 5 and lasted about 13 months. Martin Luther King Jr. was named president of the organization, and various groups and individuals in the North and the South gave physical and financial support to keep the boycott going.

Before the boycott, black riders had to enter the front doors of the buses, deposit their fares, disembark and then re-enter at the rear of the bus, where seats were designated for them and them only. They were forced to stand if all the black seats were taken, even though plenty of seats were vacant in the front or white section.

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to the Lexington Herald-Leader

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

It was a long, hard fight, but the boycott was successful. The buses were integrated by order of the U.S. Supreme Court, and on Dec. 20, 1956, the boycott ended.

That's the story we know. But as with most things there are other details that are not as well known.

For instance, a group of mostly professional women, many of them professors at the all-black Alabama State College in Montgomery, along with social workers, nurses, and other community workers, played a major role in the boycott. In fact, they had been working through proper channels to win the desegregation of the buses and had planned for a boycott long before it occurred.

The group, Women's Political Council, was established in 1946 to increase civic involvement and to erase racist Jim Crow policies in the city.

In 1949, Jo Ann Gibson Robinson moved to Montgomery to teach English at Alabama State. One day, as she sat in the fifth row of a bus that was nearly empty, the driver put her off because she had sat in the white section.

Changing those policies became a central issue for the WPC when Robinson became president of the organization in 1950. For about five years, the group complained to the city commission, to no avail, and planned for a boycott.

Two teenage girls — Claudette Colvin, 15, and Mary Louise Smith, 18 — had been arrested in 1955 before Parks for refusing to give up their seats, but Parks was viewed by activists as the one who could withstand the scrutiny.

The WPC understood that the South gave black women more opportunities to protest than were available to more threatening black males.

The WPC and Robinson called for a one-day boycott of city buses after bailing Parks out of jail. She and another professor and two students mimeographed and distributed about 52,500 leaflets calling for the protest. After a meeting at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, other groups joined in.

About 90 percent of the blacks found other means of travel on Dec. 5. The protest was so successful, ministers and other leaders met to form the MIA and elect King as president. The group voted to continue the boycott.

MIA leaders offered an official position in the group to Robinson, but she chose not to join, fearing that it would jeopardize her professorship at Alabama State.

King, however, asked her to take charge of the weekly MIA newsletter.

She didn't escape the threats and harassment suffered by the leaders of the MIA. A police officer threw a rock in her window, and another poured acid on her car.

Still, the boycott worked. Some parts of Jim Crow had been banished, just as the women of the WPC had hoped. Robinson wrote The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: the Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, while living in Los Angeles in1987. In it she wrote, ''An oppressed but brave people, whose pride and dignity rose to the occasion, conquered fear, and faced whatever perils had to be confronted. The boycott was the most beautiful memory that all of us who participated will carry to our final resting place.''

It took a lot of patience, planning and participation for the boycott to be successful. It also took a lot of unheralded heroes.

Quitting would have been a lot easier. But where would this country be if those men and women had chosen the easy route?

We need to remember that, because there are a lot of battles yet to be won.

  Comments  

Videos

The Snake Church features a Snake-Handling Pastor bitten by deadly Rattlesnake

Why do Catholic churches have so many statues?

View More Video

Trending Stories

Festival with ‘A-list music’ coming to Keeneland via producers of Forecastle, Bonnaroo

February 20, 2019 10:59 AM

Principal of Kentucky high school charged after not reporting abuse of students, police say

February 20, 2019 12:32 PM

Lake Cumberland at level not seen in 20 years because of heavy rain. The dam is fine.

February 20, 2019 03:06 PM

Friendly exchange precedes fierce exchange as Kentucky survives at Missouri

February 20, 2019 12:44 AM

How UK could add more guards to its 2019 recruiting class (and a Keion Brooks update)

February 20, 2019 10:23 AM

Read Next

Want to recycle your natural Christmas tree? Let the state dump it in a lake

Fayette County

Want to recycle your natural Christmas tree? Let the state dump it in a lake

By Rick Childress

    ORDER REPRINT →

December 28, 2018 01:32 PM

Looking for where to take your Christmas tree now that the holidays are over? Here’s how to recycle your Christmas tree in Lexington and Central Kentucky.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to the Lexington Herald-Leader

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE COMMUNITY

450 volunteers. 25,000 meals. Two hours.  Effort hopes to have impact on child hunger.

Community

450 volunteers. 25,000 meals. Two hours. Effort hopes to have impact on child hunger.

October 29, 2018 03:01 PM
Have you seen Omlet? Kentucky family's pet peacock has gone missing.

Jessamine County

Have you seen Omlet? Kentucky family's pet peacock has gone missing.

May 30, 2018 05:00 PM
Festival in downtown Lexington this weekend was inspired by #MeToo movement

Fayette County

Festival in downtown Lexington this weekend was inspired by #MeToo movement

April 27, 2018 08:09 PM
Fayette notes: Big Blue Crush blood battle begins

Community

Fayette notes: Big Blue Crush blood battle begins

November 14, 2017 06:41 AM
Camp Nelson holds Living History Event this weekend

Fayette County

Camp Nelson holds Living History Event this weekend

September 05, 2017 05:53 AM
Revolutionary Kids Day to include crafts, games, reenactors

Community

Revolutionary Kids Day to include crafts, games, reenactors

July 18, 2017 07:28 AM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

Lexington Herald Leader App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Archives
Advertising
  • Contact Us
  • Place a Classified Ad
  • Local Deals
  • Digital Solutions
  • Media Kit
Copyright
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story