Montgomery Bus Boycott: Struggle For Civil Rights

Assess the significance of the Montgomery bus boycott in the struggle for civil rights in the USA. Evaluate. (50marks) In my essay I will assess the Montgomery bus boycott, 1955 and its significance in the struggle for civil rights in the USA and why history has been represented and interpreted in different ways. In addition, I will examine the usefulness of sources and evaluate the struggles to get civil rights. I will evaluate to reach an overall conclusion on the significance of the Montgomery bus boycott. I will be assessing what historian’s views and why they differ and examine to assess how far the Montgomery bus boycott was significant in the struggle for civil rights
For instance, from a report by a civil rights worker for NAACP, early 1930s is about men explaining how life was like before Montgomery. In the source one man said “I don’t want my throat cut” this really shows how bad racism was. Also a man explained: “I don’t want my job cut off” this is significant as this shows that AA men cannot get jobs and are fearful of losing their job if they criticise white people. This source is useful as this gives a representation on how hard life was for AA before the Montgomery bus boycott. I think the purpose of this source is to show AA in America that many AA are suffering the racism. This is similar to Truman who sent a letter to his girlfriend Bess in 1904, where Truman wrote: “Negroes ought to be in Africa” this shows that Truman believes that AA are unwanted. This links to the report by the civil rights worker as it shows how AA are unwanted. These two sources can be interpreted that AA are unwanted and live in a society where AA are fearful, hence actions like Rosa Park’s that sparked the boycott showed great courage
The boycott was also significant as according to Mark Stacey 2012 he said that ‘the boycott also brought Martin Luther King to the fore’ and Dr J Street, 2012 who said that King became the lightning rod for the civil rights movement’ following his being put in the ‘spotlight’ at |Montgomery. This was significant as it shows how the bus boycott helped raise Martin Luther King to prominence as a civil rights leader and was seen as a national figurehead of the civil rights movement. Another aspect that makes the boycott significant was the unity of the AA to make the boycott last 381 days and how the community worked together during the boycott this is shown in “Tote dat barge! Lif dat boycott! Ride dat bus!” in 2002 Jannel Mcgrew interviewed Gwen Patton who was 12 during the boycott explains that things were done to finance the boycott the things that were done were: “bake sales, little competitions like that between neighbourhood women” this shows how AA got together and carried out activity’s such as bake sales to finance the boycott which shows great unity and oneness. This showed that AA protest achieved a form of justice ruling. This shows how MBB is significant as life for AA