The civil rights movement was a collection of events, protest, and court rulings that finally ended segregation after almost 100 long years of segregation. Two important events that occurred as part of the civil rights movement were the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, and the Montgomery bus boycott. Both were instrumental in ending segregation, and both made large contributions to the Civil Rights movement in different ways. After examining the facts surrounding both I have come to the conclusion that one event did more to advance the civil rights movement than the other, that event is the Montgomery Bus Boycott. However, before we talk about why the Montgomery Bus Boycott is the more important of the two events we need an understanding
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The Bus Boycott occurred in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955 and lasted 381 days. During the boycott African Americans refused to use city buses until the became unsegregated, instead they walked, or carpooled with other blacks who owned cars. The boycott all started after Rosa Parks refused to give up her in the black section of the bus to a white man because all the seating for white people was full. Parks was promptly arrested, and this sparked outrage across the African American community in the city. In response they came up with the boycott. The boycott proved to be immensely success, and actually put great financial strain on the city, and many of the business in downtown Birmingham. This is because the city was getting less revenue from the buses, and because people were no longer taking buses they were not visiting the businesses downtown that were far away from the African American sections of town. Some white citizens attempted to end the boycott by harassing African Americans, arresting them for slight infractions, and they even resorted to the use of violence. However, in the end the pressure was too much, and the city agreed to desegregate the …show more content…
Board of Education ruling. For starters, notice how the bus boycotts occurred after the Brown ruling. Wasn`t segregation supposed to be over? No, not exactly the Brown ruling only desegregated schools. Every other institution was still segregated. Second, while the Brown decision made segregated schools illegal no clear path was laid to desegregating schools, and even to this day some people still think that many of the country`s school are in essence still segregated. Third, the Montgomery Boycott was Martin Luther King Jr.`s first foray into the civil rights movement. King would go on to become the leading figure in the civil rights movement, and proved to be the perfect man for the job. His nonviolent tactics won over Americans of every color, and it made the civil rights movement the sort of thing that anyone could get behind. Fourth, court rulings do not change attitudes, only people can do that, and the Montgomery bus boycott did just that. All of the owners in the downtown businesses of Birmingham were white owned, and the majority of the owners supported segregation. However, when faced with the prospect of ever mounting financial losses they attempted to negotiate with the leaders of the boycott in order to end it. This shows that the actions of people were far
The Bus Boycott occurred in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955 and lasted 381 days. During the boycott African Americans refused to use city buses until the became unsegregated, instead they walked, or carpooled with other blacks who owned cars. The boycott all started after Rosa Parks refused to give up her in the black section of the bus to a white man because all the seating for white people was full. Parks was promptly arrested, and this sparked outrage across the African American community in the city. In response they came up with the boycott. The boycott proved to be immensely success, and actually put great financial strain on the city, and many of the business in downtown Birmingham. This is because the city was getting less revenue from the buses, and because people were no longer taking buses they were not visiting the businesses downtown that were far away from the African American sections of town. Some white citizens attempted to end the boycott by harassing African Americans, arresting them for slight infractions, and they even resorted to the use of violence. However, in the end the pressure was too much, and the city agreed to desegregate the …show more content…
Board of Education ruling. For starters, notice how the bus boycotts occurred after the Brown ruling. Wasn`t segregation supposed to be over? No, not exactly the Brown ruling only desegregated schools. Every other institution was still segregated. Second, while the Brown decision made segregated schools illegal no clear path was laid to desegregating schools, and even to this day some people still think that many of the country`s school are in essence still segregated. Third, the Montgomery Boycott was Martin Luther King Jr.`s first foray into the civil rights movement. King would go on to become the leading figure in the civil rights movement, and proved to be the perfect man for the job. His nonviolent tactics won over Americans of every color, and it made the civil rights movement the sort of thing that anyone could get behind. Fourth, court rulings do not change attitudes, only people can do that, and the Montgomery bus boycott did just that. All of the owners in the downtown businesses of Birmingham were white owned, and the majority of the owners supported segregation. However, when faced with the prospect of ever mounting financial losses they attempted to negotiate with the leaders of the boycott in order to end it. This shows that the actions of people were far