The Affects
The effects of the Montgomery Bus Boycott were far reaching beyond the borders of Montgomery, Alabama. The arrest of Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her seat for a white passenger was just what E D Nixon had been waiting for in order to challenge segregation in public transportation in the city. The Bus boycott was also only intended to last for a day; no one expected it to last for very long. Because those involved in the Montgomery Bus Boycott continued to hold strong, and refused to ride the buses, on December 21, 1956, the transportation system finally surrendered and made the city's buses racially equal. African Americans finally recived what they have been hoping and praying for - Equality -.
Why Was The Boycott Successful?
When the bus boycott started, it was successful mainly because majority of the people who used the city bus were African Americans. With the boycott, the bus companies started experiencing heavy losses. Carpooling was organized among many African Americans, and even White housewives joined the boycott by ferrying their domestic workers to and fro from work. African American taxi drivers started charging other African American passengers less for using their taxi. Others began walking, hitchhiking, and cycling when they needed to get out.
The news of the bus boycott spread around the country. African American communities in other parts of the country began to raise money for the boycotters and even collected new and slightly used shoes to donate to Montgomery African Americans who walked everyday to work and back in support of the boycott.
The Montgomery Improvement Association
A young minister named Martin Luther King, Jr. was elected the president of this organization. In addition, a college professor named Jo Ann Robinson distributed flyers requesting African Americans to boycott buses on Monday, the 5th of December, 1955. The Montgomery Improvement Association wanted to have a compromise with the city and even proposed having a dividing line in the bus, so that one half of the bus would be for the Whites and the other half for the African Americans. The idea was that all bus passengers be treated equally regardless of the color of their skin. In addition, the organization also wanted the city to employ African Americans as bus drivers.