Montgomery Bus Boycott
Background:
Local authorities in Montgomery, Alabama, arrested Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, when she refused to vacate her seat in the white section of a city bus on December 1, 1955. To protest Parks' arrest and the continued segregation of Montgomery's bus lines, members of the city's black community formed the Montgomery Improvement Association on December 4, 1955, and launched a community wide boycott to compel the system's integration. Under the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr., black commuters and a small number of white sympathizers suffered official harassment, numerous threats, and personal inconvenience for more than a year while the matter made its way through the federal courts. On November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court's decision, and ruled the segregated system unconstitutional. To celebrate the boycott's victory, King and three ministerial colleagues boarded a city bus on December 21, 1956 only one day after Montgomery officials received the court order to desegregate the city's buses, and took their seats throughout the vehicle.
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Archival Collections and Reference Resources
- Alabama Media Group Collection (Alabama Department of Archives and History)
- Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Oral History Project Collection (Birmingham Civil Rights Institute)
- Civil Case Files, 1938-1995, Records of the District Courts of the United States (National Archives at Atlanta)
- Civil rights films from USC's moving image research collections (University of South Carolina)
- Civil Rights History Project (Library of Congress)
- Encyclopedia of Alabama (Encyclopedia of Alabama)
- Heroes of the Civil Rights Movement (Smoking Gun)
- Addie J. Hamerter (Identification photographs)
- Alberta J. James (Identification photographs)
- Alfred Ellis (Identification photographs)
- Arthur Bibbins (Identification photographs)
- Arthur Murphy (Identification photographs)
- Audrey Belle Langford (Identification photographs)
- B.D. Lambert (Identification photographs)
- Booker T. Holmes (Identification photographs)
- Burl M. Averhart (Identification photographs)
- C.W. Lee (Identification photographs)
- Calvin Varner (Identification photographs)
- Charlie Polk, Jr. (Identification photographs)
- Cora McHaney (Identification photographs)
- E.D. Nixon (Identification photographs)
- E.H. Ligon (Identification photographs)
- Eddie Bradford (Identification photographs)
- Edward Williams (Identification photographs)
- Eli Judkins (Identification photographs)
- Eretta F. Adair (Identification photographs)
- Frank L. Taylor (Identification photographs)
- Frank Powell, Jr. (Identification photographs)
- Fuddie Morris (Identification photographs)
- George H. Jordan (Identification photographs)
- George Henderson (Identification photographs)
- George Hill (Identification photographs)
- Handwriten arrest ledger (Government records)
- Henry A. McClain (Identification photographs)
- Henry Williams (Identification photographs)
- Ida Mae Caldwell (Identification photographs)
- Isiah Ferguson (Identification photographs)
- J.C. Smith (Identification photographs)
- J.E. Pierce (Identification photographs)
- J.H. Baker (Identification photographs)
- J.N. King (Identification photographs)
- Jackson Knox (Identification photographs)
- James T. Primus (Identification photographs)
- Jimmie Gamble (Identification photographs)
- Jimmie L. Lowe (Identification photographs)
- Jo Ann Robinson (Identification photographs)
- John H. Garrison (Identification photographs)
- L.C. Walker (Identification photographs)
- L.R. Bennett (Identification photographs)
- Lottie Green Varner (Identification photographs)
- Louis Christburg (Identification photographs)
- Martin Luther King, Jr., #7089 (Government records)
- Mathew Kennedy (Identification photographs)
- A. McHaney (Identification photographs)
- Mentha L. Johnson (Identification photographs)
- Mose Bishop (Identification photographs)
- Mose W. Richburg (Identification photographs)
- Moses W. Jones, MD (Identification photographs)
- Mrs. A.W. West, Sr. (Identification photographs)
- Osborne C. Chambliss (Identification photographs)
- Otis A. Carlton (Identification photographs)
- P.E. Conley (Identification photographs)
- P.M. Blair (Identification photographs)
- R.B. Binion (Identification photographs)
- Rev. A. Edward Banks (Identification photographs)
- Rev. A. H. Hoffman (Identification photographs)
- Rev. B.J. Simms (Identification photographs)
- Rev. E.N. French (Identification photographs)
- Rev. Fred L. Davis (Identification photographs)
- Rev. H.H. Hubbard (Identification photographs)
- Rev. H.H. Johnson (Identification photographs)
- Rev. H.J. Palmer (Identification photographs)
- Rev. J.H. Cherry (Identification photographs)
- Rev. J.W. Bonner (Identification photographs)
- Rev. Joshua W. Hayes (Identification photographs)
- Rev. M.C. Cleveland (Identification photographs)
- Rev. M.L. King, Jr. (Identification photographs)
- Rev. R. J. Glassco (Identification photographs)
- Rev. R.W. Hilson (Identification photographs)
- Rev. S. Heard (Identification photographs)
- Rev. S.S. Seay (Identification photographs)
- Rev. W.F. Alford (Identification photographs)
- Rev. W.J. Powell (Identification photographs)
- Richard S. Jordan (Identification photographs)
- Robert Johnson (Identification photographs)
- Ronald R. Young (Identification photographs)
- Rosa Parks (Identification photographs)
- Rosa Parks, #7053 (Government records)
- Sam Barnett (Identification photographs)
- Simon Peter McBride (Identification photographs)
- Thomas Gray (Identification photographs)
- Tom Parks (Identification photographs)
- W.H. Johnson (Identification photographs)
- Walter Moss (Identification photographs)
- Walter Smith (Identification photographs)
- Wesley Tolbert (Identification photographs)
- Willie James Kemp (Identification photographs)
- Rev. Joseph A. DeLaine Papers ca. 1918-2000 (University of South Carolina)
- Rosa Parks Papers (Library of Congress)
- Sovereignty Commission Online (Mississippi Department of Archives and History)
- Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission photograph of B.D. Lambert after an arrest holding a slate bearing the the booking number 7074, Montgomery, Alabama, 1956 February (black-and-white photographs)
- Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission photograph of Martin Luther King, Jr. after an arrest with a slate around his neck bearing the the booking number 7089, Montgomery, Alabama, 1956 February (black-and-white photographs)