Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott - Montgomery, AL
Posted by: 
hoteltwo
N 32° 22.590 W 086° 18.680
16S E 564781 N 3582377
Replacing marker WMD6Q9, this marker expands on the role of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. A new Hank Williams marker will be installed elsewhere.
Waymark Code: WMQ2A5
Location: Alabama, United States
Date Posted: 12/05/2015
Views: 6
Marker text:
Side 1
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Louis McCauley Parks was arrested on this site for refusing the order of city bus driver J. F. Blake to vacate her seat under the segregation laws of the Jim Crow era. She was taken to police headquarters at City Hall for booking, then to the municipal jail on Ripley Street. Civil rights leader E. D. Nixon, accompanied by attorney Clifford Durr, soon arrived to post her bail. Parks's arrest galvanized black leaders to organize a boycott of the bus system for Dec. 5, the date she was to appear in Municipal Court. Her conviction and the success of the one-day bus protest inspired the creation of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to continue what came to be known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
(Continued on other side)
Side 2
(Continued from other side)
The 382-day boycott was the first sustained mass demonstration against segregation in the U.S. and launched the 20th-century civil rights movement. It also thrust Martin Luther King Jr., the elected leader of the MIA, into national prominence. The boycott ended after a lawsuit filed by Mrs. Parks's attorney, Fred D. Gray, ultimately led the federal courts to declare segregated bus seating unconstitutional. Mrs. Parks went on to become a national heroine, but in the aftermath of the boycott she and her husband were denied employment in Montgomery. They moved to Detroit, where she lived out her life. She died October 24, 2005, universally honored for her courage and activism.
Marker Name: Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Marker Type: Urban
Addtional Information::
Erected by the Alabama Historical Association.
Date Dedicated / Placed: 12/1/2015
Marker Number: Not listed
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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.