Period 3
Montgomery Bus Boycott
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested because she refused to give up her seat to a white man. It was unlikely that she realized the force she had set into motion and the controversy that would soon swirl around her. “I didn’t get on the bus with the intention of being arrested,” she said.
Earlier that year in March 2, 1955, a 15-year old girl Claudette Colvin was the first person arrested for resisting bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama. Actually, “Colvin did not violate city bus policy by not relinquishing her seat. She was not sitting in the front seats reserved for whites, and there was no other place for her to sit. But despite the apparent legality of her refusal to give up her seat, Colvin was still convicted. …show more content…
Parks’ trial happened on December 5, four days after her arrest. Jo Ann Robinson, who was president of the Women’s Political Council, planned a one-day bus boycott on the day of Parks’ trial. They sent out convincing fliers to tell all blacks to stay off bus that day. It turned out that the participation rate was much higher than the leaders’ expectation. The city buses were essentially empty and they bus company lost 65% of its profit. Parks was convicted guilty within thirty minutes after the trial started. She was fined $14, but that decision would further stir the black community to action.
After Park’s trial, the council thought that the boycott was so successful that they should continue. They started recruiting leaders in order to precede the boycott. When they talked to Martin Luther King Jr., he agreed. His speech stirred the thousand or more people that packed into every corner of the