Plessy Vs Ferguson Segregation

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After the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, the South enforced Jim Crow Laws as a way to control the newly freed slaves and a way to legally discriminate against African Americans. One of the parts of the Jim Crow laws is segregation. Segregation was enforced in many public places, like public transportation, public accommodations, even water fountains, and many other places, to separate African Americans from the rest. On the bus, African Americans were expected to sit in the back segregated section or forfeit their seat if they were in any other section when the bus became full. Although Rosa Parks was a well-known figure in the Montgomery bus protest, there were a few who protested before her in the name of equality. In 1884, seventy-one …show more content…
Ferguson took place in Louisiana. Homer Plessy was a bi-racial man arrested for refusing to move to the section for the “colored race”. After Homer Plessy would take the case to trial and lose, the Supreme Court would claim Separate But Equal. Even though the case was lost, this legal battle would motivate many during the civil rights era. In 1944, while serving in the army, Jackie Robinson refused to move to the back of the bus. This resulted in his being arrested and court-martialed; he would eventually be acquitted. There was also a brief bus protest that took place in 1953 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that was put together to protest against segregation. However, this strike would only last eight days, and it would be a major influence on the Montgomery Bus Riots. In 1955, Montgomery fifteen-year-old student Claudette Colvin was arrested and removed from the bus after refusing to give up her seat to a white man. Later that same year, an eighteen-year-old woman named Mary Louise in Montgomery was also arrested after refusing to vacate her seat. However, like Claudette Colvin, Mary’s personal life was less than ideal, so their courageous acts of courage would soon be …show more content…
At the time of the scheduled protest, there was overwhelming support from the African American communities; over 90 percent of the Montgomery black citizens stayed off the buses that day. The event was such a success that the local ministers and leaders put together a meeting to see how they were able to make the protest something that would continue long-term or until change was seen. During this meeting, the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was formed, and Martin Luther King was elected as the club's president. Rosa Parks would recall, “The advantage of having Dr. King as president was that he was so new to Montgomery and to civil rights work that he hadn’t been there long enough to make any strong friends or enemies." The protest would continue for a year, and despite the backlash from government officials and white citizens, the protestors stood strong and together. During the protest, black taxi drivers would join in the protest by charging commuters the price of what they would have if they had taken the bus. However, city officials have caught on to that, and the MIA formed a carpool system that had over 300 cars
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