Many people are aware of what Martin Luther King Jr. did for civil rights in this country, and today we celebrate his bold defiance in the face of oppression. Numerous times he risked being arrested, and more than once he found himself in handcuffs because of his beliefs in non-violent civil disobedience. Much is known about the general points in MLK’s life, but today we reflect on how his first arrest began the movement to end segregation.
Montgomery Bus Boycotts
Dr. King’s involvement in ending racial segregation began well before Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man, but his involvement in the Montgomery bus boycotts landed him in the national spotlight.
Rosa Parks was arrested on a Thursday, leading African Americans to take a stand against the discriminatory bus laws. They asked all African Americans to find a different way to get to school or work on the following Monday, but people began to boycott buses as soon as they heard of the planned boycott. City buses were already feeling the impact by Saturday.
Dr. King was a young minister in Montgomery at the time, and city officials felt that they needed a figure to lead the bus boycott. King was elected the leader of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), the official name of the bus boycott. The following is a list of events that took place surrounding the boycott.
- Following a successful Saturday protest, African American leaders urged blacks to continue the protest.
- The city buses felt a serious economic impact, as roughly ¾’s of their regular riders were African Americans.
- African Americans formed carpools, volunteered rides, and took taxi’s to get to school and work.
- African American taxi drivers lowered their fares to 10 cents to match the fare charged by the buses. Less than a week later city officials passed a law that made it a violation to charge less than 45 cents for a cab fare, but many taxi drivers worked around the law.
- Dr. King was later indicted for “conspiracy to interfere with a business”, an ordinance dating back 1921. Instead of waiting to be arrested, King and other leaders turned themselves in.
“I was proud of my crime. It was the crime of joining my people in a nonviolent protest against injustice,” King said following his arrest.
King was faced with a $500 fine or 386 days in jail. He elected to serve his time, but spent only two weeks in jail as Montgomery caved under intense national pressure.
With the national spotlight on Montgomery, local lawyers wanted to challenge the constitutionality of the discriminatory bus laws. Citing four African American plaintiffs who had been arrested for refusing to give up their seats, they took their case to U.S. District Court. On February 1, 1956, the court case of Browder v. Gale was filed to district court. Aureila Browder had been arrested under the law, and W.A. Gayle was the Mayor of Montgomery. The prosecution ordered that the bus laws violated equal rights protection as guaranteed in the Constitution.
In June of 1956, the court ruled that “the enforced segregation of black and white passengers on motor buses operating in the City of Montgomery violates the Constitution and laws of the United States,” because the conditions deprived people of equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment.
Dr. King’s involvement in the Montgomery bus boycott laid the groundwork for national protests to abolish Jim Crow laws across the country. King’s belief in equal treatment for everyone led to his passionate “I Have a Dream Speech” in Washington in 1963. His speech highlighted the importance of civil rights, and a year later Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed major forms of discrimination.
