Montgomery Bus Boycott Research Paper

On March 2,1955 Claudette Colvin, a 15 year old Negro girl who was sitting in the section on the bus assigned for colored people, was arrested for not giving up her seat on the bus to a white man, though she didn’t break any laws she was still arrested. Nine months later, on December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks, a forty-two year old African-American woman who worked as a seamstress and a secretary for the NAACP, sitting in the colored section of the bus was also arrested in Montgomery, AL for not giving up her seat to a white man. . The idea of a boycott to desegregate the city’s buses was already in the air but, because of the lack of action that took place with Colvin’s arrest, Civil Rights Activists used Rosa Park’s arrest as an opportunity to challenge …show more content…
Robert S. Graetz, a white young Lutheran minister, was a civil rights activist who urged his congregation to give their fullest support to the Montgomery Bus Boycott organized by Negro’s. Expecting more than half of his congregation to object to his request, he was surprised to find that two-hundred and ten members of his congregation approved of his proposal. Graetz decided that he wanted to provide his own car to help blacks who couldn’t afford to ride in taxis even though they were encouraged to lower their prices to ten cents per ride. Being the only white member of the Montgomery Improvement Association he worked hard to help blacks end segregation on buses in Montgomery even with his own home being bombed more than once and being harassed by white men he still helped provide 255-355 private cars and raised $7,000 which was used for flyers to promote the boycott of the buses and gas to transport Negro’s to work. Juliet Hampton Morgan, a white woman born in Montgomery was also a supportive of the boycott. Though she had been born in a time when segregation laws were still in effect she didn’t believe in treating them as if they were lower than her. Over a decade before the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Morgan would write letters to the local newspaper about the mean and prejudiced way that black were treated on the bus. While most whites used religious liberty to justify racism and the discrimination against blacks, she believed that segregation was un-Christian. She often stood up for African-Americans when she saw them being maltreated and humiliated by bus drivers. After learning about the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Morgan’s belief in speaking for social justice encouraged her to write a letter to the adviser supporting the boycott and expressing

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