He constantly was involved in protests and sit-ins and gave his famous I Have A Dream speech in Washington DC. This speech changed civil rights forever, and is well known today in America. Rosa Parks was a famous activist who also altered African American Civil Rights forever. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery. She then was arrested, ultimately starting the boycott. On December 5, 1955 African Americans stopped using the Montgomery bus system in protest. This lasted until December 20, 1956, a full year later. This protest helped change African American lives forever, helping them gain rights and become equal to every American in the country. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a successful protest because of the inspirational words said by Martin Luther King Jr, help from whites that supported African Americans, and the documents of writing that impacted the decisions made by the mayor of …show more content…
On May 24, 1954 a letter was delivered to city hall and read by mayor W. Gayle from Jo Ann Robinson. The letter informed the mayor of an upcoming protest on all city bus systems. As stated by Jo Ann Robinson, “Mayor Gayle, three-fourths of the riders of these public conveyances are Negroes. If Negroes did not patronize them, they could not possibly operate”(Document B). The quote from the letter shows that the boycott caused many difficulties in the bus system in Montgomery. Due to most of the riders being African American buses weren’t receiving nearly as much money as they used to, making this a big dilemma for the mayor. Since this letter had been sent over a year before the boycott begun Gayle had completely ignored the demands made by Jo Ann Robinson in the letter, which ultimately caused the business controversy in Montgomery. On June 5, 1956 the federal court ruled that any law requiring racially segregated seating on buses violated the 14th Amendment, proving that the Montgomery Bus Boycott had finally succeeded. Therefore, that is why the fallout of the bus systems impacted the decisions made by the mayor, which led to the success of the bus