What did she do? What exactly happened during the boycott?the Montgomery bus boycott was a 13-month mass protest that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional 3. Although the boycott was a success, it threw Rosa and Raymond Parks' life into turmoil. The Montgomery Bus Boycott in Montgomery, Alabama was a crucial event in the 20th Century Civil Rights Movement. King was elected its president. It also brought Martin Luther King, Jr., into the spotlight as … Martin Luther King, the charismatic young pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, was elected president of the MIA. The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) coordinated the boycott, and its president, Martin Luther King, Jr., became a prominent civil rights leader as international attention focused on Montgomery. During the Montgomery bus boycott, it was the forces of segregation that were under attack… not the White people who supported segregation, who were, in King’s words, people who had been “victimized by evil” by the fact that they had been raised in a society that made it nearly impossible for them not to become racist. While in Boston, King met Coretta Scott, a native Alabamian who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The MIA initially asked for first-come, first-served seating, with African Americans starting in the rear and white passengers beginning in the front of the bus. The Montgomery Bus Boycott happened because Rosa Parks had been arrested for refusing to hand over her seat to a white man. In 1955, Claudette Colvin, a high school student in Montgomery, Alabama boarded the city bus. The Montgomery bus boycott was one of the defining actions of the civil rights movement in the United States. Rosa Parks, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the Birth of the Civil Rights Movement, How Rosa Parks became “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement”. The violence did end and the integration of the buses in Montgomery went ahead with relative success. Black Leaders / By Kate Kelly. Montgomery Bus Boycott. On 1st December, 1955, Rosa Parks was instructed by a white bus driver to move out of her seat in the black section of the bus to allow a white man to sit, as the white seating area was full. Even after the buses integrated, Montgomery's bus stops were still segregated. See also Montgomery Bus Boycott for web links. But in many southern states segregation … They were married in 1953 and had four children. A 26 year old minister at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church saw empty bus after empty bus drive down his road. # Montgomery Bus Boycott # The Perfect Candidate. Many white citizens retaliated against the African American community: King’s home was bombed, and many boycotters were threatened or fired from their jobs. Because Montgomery maintained segregated bus stops, shooters took aim at waiting black citizens. What the NAACP wanted was a case that was simply one involved with segregation with no other issue that might cloud the case. He was to be pastor of Montgomery’s Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. The boycott, however, remains controversial because many supporters felt its leader, Rev. Many of Montgomery’s African American residents were politically organized long before Parks was arrested. I was born into a segregated system, and I took it for granted. He was ordered to pay $500 as a fine with $500 costs. The Montgomery Bus Boycott ended. After a full day’s work, Rosa Parks got a bus home. The boycott took place from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956, and is regarded as the first large-scale U.S. demonstration against segregation. A white man got on board and found that all the ‘white’ seats were full. (National Archives Identifier 7452358) Instead of buses, African Americans took taxis driven by black drivers who had lowered their fares in support of the boycott, walked, cycled, drove private cars, and even rode mules or drove in horse-drawn carriages to get around.