Rosa Parks Effect in the Montgomery Bus Boycott - Term Paper Example

Rosa Parks Effect in the Montgomery bus boycott

Introduction

Rosa Parks was jailed for refusing to give up a seat to a white man. This led to a series of events that earned her a place in the history books as civil rights icon. Even though the Montgomery bus boycott which was a hallmark of civil rights movement is mostly attributed to the courageous act of Rosa Parks, some events show that this was not a one man band but something that was long overdue. That the bus boycott might have been as a result of very many other things, with the arrest of Rosa Parks triggering it. Thus this paper will analyze the events that surrounded the Rosa Parks arrest and ultimate boycott including people who were possibly involved in the organization of the boycott and the ultimate outcome.

The Police Report

Looking at the police report, it was authored by two officers who arrested her, they were officers F.B Day and D.W. Mixom . Taking into account that the author of the document was two white officers who were reporting about a woman of color who had failed to know her place in the racial hierarchy, there were obvious biases that the police officers would have had towards this woman. White section of the bus was usually at the front or middle as most of the back was reserved for people of color who would stand up in case the section reserved for whites was full. Hence according to the statement that was given by the police Rosa sat at the front where she was not supposed to sit and had refused to move when a white person came aboard. Being that it was a law put in place by Alabama, this law must have been put in place to deter people of color from mixing with white man if they got into the bus and therefore this could not have been the first time someone refused to give up a seat for a white person. It was an act of defiance that must have happened before, and that is why the city of Montgomery had a designed a code for it.

Court Affidavit

This was a document which was submitted by the defendant who in this case was Rosa Parks appealing her conviction. The person who signed this document was Judge Carter, a white judge because then there was no black judge. The reason this is important is in the fact that this judge would not have been fair to her or so would be assumed. Even though later the laws were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

This document gave a clear picture of exactly where Rosa Parks sat. It gave the exact number of seats that had been assigned to people of color. This document positioned Rosa Parks on the first dual seats that were immediately behind white passengers. Meaning she was sitting in what would be regarded as a white people section. The difference between the court affidavit and the police report is the level of clarity and detail that was given. The police records merely confirmed the fact that the arresting officers saw where she was seated. And so the fact that the court affidavit gave more details and had been signed by a judge it appeared more worthy of trust, unlike the first document.

Letter from Robinson to the Mayor

This was a letter that was written almost a year and a half before Rosa Parks was arrested. The fact is that the practices of segregation were already in place and the letter showed African Americans were not happy about the humiliation they had faced in the buses. In this letter, Robinson reminded the mayor that the bus riders were majorly black because the boycott was somehow looming and they knew if this was to happen then it was not going to go well for the bus companies. Thus this was trying to avoid the boycott by addressing some of the issues that the black community had. This means that Rosa Parks likely triggered the boycott and not necessarily started it. This was something that was being planned for a long time, and her arrest was the straw that broke Carmel’s back.

Letter from Durr to Director of Highlander Folk School

Durr was a white woman who supported the civil rights movement. This is interesting because it showed that not all white people supported the unjust Jim Crow era rules. Some of them like Durr were committed to seeing freedom for the black folks. Myles and Zilphia had played a part in the boycott because through them Rosa Parks had gained the courage to do stand up to the unjust system of oppression after being in their school which was meant for training civil rights activists. This letter showed Rosa Parks as a noblewoman who was most of the times was quiet and kept to herself and as such the training might have made her garner the courage to stand up against the segragative bus laws.

Robinson on the boycott leaflet campaign

Even though the memoirs detailing the how Robinson and others organized the Montgomery bus boycott was written in1987, its authenticity cannot be put in question. It gives a clear detail of the events and has not been disputed so far by any other document. As such even though it was written nearly thirty years after the boycott, it still appears very reliable.

For them to distribute the leaflets, the resources that were available to them were the college mimeograph equipment, and at the same time, there were people or rather fellow students who had suffered similar humiliations in the bus who helped prepare the leaflets for distribution by early morning the next day. The boycott was looming all along, all it needed was something to trigger off action, and the arrest of Rosa Parks did. Therefore between the arrest and the first day of boycott, it took great community organizing and passing of information on the date that the boycott was to start. It involved making of the leaflets and organizing of how they were going to be distributed. This happened till every other person within the black community in Montgomery knew there was going to be a boycott.

Abernathy remembers the first meeting of the Montgomery Improvement Association

Ralph Abernathy stated that at that time the only available choices were two. One of it was to call off the protest. The first day of protest had shown strength and had been very successful. However, Ralph feared people would grow tired and thus go back to riding the bus and therefore render the boycott ineffective. And as such, he wanted the protest to be called off so that it could act as a warning to the bus companies. But the conviction among the 7000 plus people in the meeting resolved that the protest would continue. This resolution led to the boycott taking over a year and a month.

The leaders of the boycott had Rosa Parks as the representation of the defiance and strength that they had. It was a sign of conviction to fight segregation to the last minute. This could have been a sign that they were with Rosa Parks in her struggle after she had been convicted. And so as a sign that the people were in for the struggle they had received an applause that had lasted another ten minutes when he and Dr. King got into the packed church. That to Ralph was a sign that people approved of what happened and were willing to continue till the struggle was over.

Handbill from Central Alabama Citizens Council rally

This was a document written in 1956 at the heart of the Montgomery bus boycott. The document was written when the boycott in Montgomery had been going on for months. This document appears to have been purposed to incite the white community in Montgomery. The content as it appeared seemed to have seen that there was some effectiveness on the boycott and therefore they feared that if it continued, there was going to be desegregation which was the soul of Alabama and as such the document seemed to be encouraging violence against these peaceful protesters.

The images showed African American people who were not humans but savages who still had traces of their animal ancestry. They were sub-humans who did not deserve to share the same space leave alone the same bus with the white community of Alabama. This showed the stiff opposition that they were facing from these individuals. It also showed that desegregation was not going to be an easy thing to start with; it was going to be a long, painful process.

This document was close to the Articles of Confederacy that was very much protective of slavery and as such did not treat black people as humans. It showed that the authors of this document viewed themselves as somehow superior, but they also saw their superiority or rather their superior place in the society as under threat.

Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks to the crowd

Dr. King was speaking to crowd members of Montgomery Improvement Association in one of their weekly meetings during the bus boycott. In his speech on 22nd March 1956, he wanted to encourage members not to give in. For them to achieve what they desired they had to go through a lot. The only way they were, therefore, going to win this fight was through persistence.

The success of the boycott in as Dr. King put was very much linked to the dedication, persistence, God and most importantly the ability to protest non-violently. The Rev. King knew that the only way to victory was if they did not give up but if they continued with the boycott.

Rev. King talked of this as a spiritual movement; he also spoke of the Promised Land. He encouraged members that God was for what they were struggling for and therefore it was coming. He urged members to give this a Christian approach. Thus religion was the backbone of this movement; they believed that through God they were going to be successful.

Bayard Rustin’s diary

This was written approximately two and a half months after the boycott had began. And it showed the level of determination among black community to maintain their protest. They stayed off the bus and yet still managed to go to their places of work. And this was majorly because many opted to walk to work, while their white bosses transported others. There was also the option of hitch-hiking and all this was an addition to the carpool that had been initiated. Bayard stated that the success of the protest was largely due to the carpool that gave people free rides to their places of work.

Interview about the boycott

This interview revealed that other people had horrible experiences at the hands of the drivers and as such felt motivated to continue with the boycott. The woman in the interview conducted in 1956 by Willie Lee showed that she had been treated liked an animal and as such hoped that after this boycott she would never have to ride in the back again. When she talked of her preachers, it would be easy to assume that it was her religious leaders as religion had taken center stage in this protest, or it was Dr. King who had become a leading voice during civil rights movement.

Conclusion

The Montgomery bus boycott was something that had been simmering, but with the arrest of Rosa Parks, the community had had enough and therefore decided to protest. But even before the arrest, there was a community that had been mistreated by the bus companies for far long enough even though they were charged the same as the white man. The boycott brought the whole unjust bus laws down a win for the civil rights movement.