Birth of Montgomery Bus Boycott - Montgomery, AL
Posted by: 
hoteltwo
N 32° 21.906 W 086° 17.762
16S E 566229 N 3581123
Located on the Alabama State University (ASU) Campus, marker was installed on 60th anniversary celebration of when Rosa Parks was arrested. Notes the ASU involvement in the bus boycott.
Waymark Code: WMQ2A0
Location: Alabama, United States
Date Posted: 12/05/2015
Views: 4
Marker text:
Side 1
On Dec. 1, 1955, at Alabama State College (now Alabama State University) in a basement room in Councill Hall, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was planned and publicized after the arrest that day of Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat to a white person on a segregated city bus.
Following Parks' arrest, Alabama State College took action. Jo Ann Robinson, a faculty member, authored the text of a flyer calling for blacks to boycott segregated city buses and, joined by others, responded to Parks' arrest by mimeographing thousands of flyers here calling for a one-day boycott of the buses to start the following Monday, Dec. 5. Assisted by members of the Women's Political Council (WPC), they distributed them throughout the city's black community in hopes of ending segregation on city buses.
(Continued on other side)
Side 2
(Continued from other side)
Robinson was perhaps the person most instrumental in planning and publicizing the 1955 Boycott, proposing the idea to the WPC more than a year before it was implemented. She was assisted by WPC members who included Thelma Glass, Irene West, Mary Fair Burks & others; and advised by activist E.D. Nixon & attorney Fred Gray (ASU alumnus '51) who was also eager to challenge the segregated bus law. Because of the spark that was lit here, news of the planned protest received widespread publicity & on Dec. 5, the Boycott was successful with over 90% of the city's black citizens staying off the buses. The city's black leaders extended the Boycott into a long-term campaign that lasted from Dec. 5, 1955 to Dec. 20, 1956, with widespread black support. It was successful when the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed Browder v. Gayle, which struck down the laws regarding segregated seating on public buses. This was the seminal birth of the modern American Civil Rights Movement.
Marker Name: Birth of Montgomery Bus Boycott - Boycott planned & publicized here at ASU's Councill Hall
Marker Type: Urban
Addtional Information::
Erected by the Kenneth Mulling Foundation and the Alabama Historical Association.
Date Dedicated / Placed: 12/1/2015
Marker Number: Not Listed
|
Visit Instructions:
Please post a photo of you OR your GPS at the marker location. Also if you know of any additional links not already mentioned about this bit of Alabama history please include that in your log.
Recent Visits/Logs:
| There are no logs for this waymark yet. |
|
|
|