Montgomery Bus Boycott

Question 1

What was the Montgomery Bus Boycott?

Answer 1

Montgomery linked to slavery

• Initated when Rosa Parks refused to give up seat on bus
• Lasted 5 Dec 1955 - December 20, 1956

Question 2

Precursor to MBB?

Answer 2

• 1900-1907 Boycott of segregated streetcars 27 cities
• 1953 - Eight day boycott
• Claudette Colvin

Question 3

Who was Claudette Colvin?

Answer 3

March 1955
15 Y/o arrested for refusing to give up seat
Colvin outspoken and feisty, pregnant by married man - questions of morality, needed respected member

Question 4

Who was Rosa Parks

Answer 4

lifelong worker for NAACP
Taken interest in Colvin
Incredibly educated
Suffered from history of bus segregation in her life (1943 bus fare, bus drove off)

Question 5

Who organised the Bus Boycott?

Answer 5

Jo Ann Robinson
Edgar D Nixon
Ralph Abernathy
MLK

Question 6

What was the MIA?

Answer 6

Montgomery Improvement Association

Question 7

Anatomy of the Boycott?

Answer 7

90% of AA Population (40,000 people stayed off the buses)
Highly organised
Black cabbies supported
Private taxi plan

Question 8

White reaction to MBB?

Answer 8

Refusal to accept any compromise
Tried to use local newspapers to convince the AA that boycott had been resolved by printing fake story
Violence, bombing of Kinds house at end of Jan

Question 9

Robert Jerome Glennon

Answer 9

The Role of Law in the Civil Rights Movement (1991)

Question 10

Raines Howell

Answer 10

My Soul is rested (1977) - Oral History

Question 11

Barry Schwartz

Answer 11

Collective Forgetting and the Symbolic Power of Oneness (2009)

Question 12

Linda Reed

Answer 12

The Brown Decision (2004)

Question 13

Dominic Capeci

Answer 13

From Harlem to Montgomery (1979)

Question 14

Christopher Coleman

Answer 14

Social Movements and Social-Change Litigation (2005)

Question 15

Tersa Nance

Answer 15

Hearing the Missing Voice (1996)

Question 16

Meier and Rudwick

Answer 16

The Boycott Against Jim Crow Streetcars in the South (1969)

Question 17

Randall Kennedy

Answer 17

Martin Luther King’s Constitution (1989)

Question 18

To outsiders the MBB seemed spontaneous?

Answer 18

In reality there were already events beforehand - looking for the case - discussions of a boycott

Question 19

Why is it important when you think about memory in history that it is Rosa Parks?

Answer 19

• Importance of her being a woman of God
• Good character - Heroine
• Symbolic significance for narrative

Question 20

How was the movement sustained?

Answer 20

It was an incredible effort to sustain - meetings, organisation, bringing in NAACP,
Example 30,000 letters written and posted

Question 21

What does Nixon mean when he said ‘any black who challenged segregation needed to be above reproach”?

Answer 21

Personal troubles issue could be knocked down
Negotiate - every reason why
Collective politics of the community - represent whol narrative

Question 22

What was Barry Schwartz’s argument?

Answer 22

Collective forgetting occurs when we have symbolic power of oneness - reducing complex historical events to a single narrative

Question 23

What is oneness?

Answer 23

The idea that there is singularity and uniqueness - MVP in baseball

Question 24

While scholars know “invisible leaders”, the CRM to the public…

Answer 24

is reinforced by pictures and how she is defined, while she actually did very little in participating in the MBB itself, how she was commemorated when she died

Question 25

To give credence to all who deserve it…

Answer 25

would make history less meaningful, we need eponyms to define moments

Question 26

Linda Reed argues that

Answer 26

Because of Brown, African Americans were more willing, even eager, to act against discrimination in American Society - MBB given significant boost by the decision

Question 27

What is Dominic Capeci’s argument?

Answer 27

Historians have ignored Adam Clayton Powell Jr and Harlem Bus Boycott (1941) but there are significant similarities

Question 28

Who was Adam Clayton Powell Jr?

Answer 28

• Leader of Harlem BB

- American Politician later but led boycott to try and break down discrimination of bus companies

Question 29

Why does Capeci draw links to MLK and Adam Clayton Powell?

Answer 29

Similar leaders and styles but differences in socio-economic backgrounds - Harlem v Montgomery - MIA more symbolic, civil rights objectives

Question 30

Christopher Coleman argues that…

Answer 30

Third explanation for the MBB - Boycott and Supreme Court battle shaped and influenced each other, reinforcing one another

Question 31

The Boycott itself actually concluded…

Answer 31

in a stalemate, but proved the black community could act and demand and get change

Question 32

Coleman on the Car Pool

Answer 32

Car Pool does not capture the scale and complexity of the automobile based transit system that the MIA built

Transported thousands of people back and forth to work and school each day

Critical ‘vehicle’ for sustaining the boycott

Question 33

Initial demands of the Boycott

Answer 33

Courtesy, the hiring of black drivers, and first-come, first-seated policy, with segregation still

Question 34

City Police harassed car pool drivers

Answer 34

issuing tickets or arresting them for trivial or nonexistent traffic violations

Question 35

What was the case for desegregation of buses?

Answer 35

Gayle v Browder

Question 36

Both strategies were…

Answer 36

necessary - interacting and shaping each other, producing a synergy that resulted in a successful protest

Question 37

What was the argument of Tersa Nance?

Answer 37

The role of Black women in the civil rights movement was significant, they were a powerful present force - work has often been minimised because their work did not hurtle them onto front pages

Question 38

Jo Ann Robinson

Answer 38

Grassroots - involved in Women’s political Council (WPC)

Did not generate rhetorical artefacts but would serve as catalysts for CRM

Question 39

What was the conclusions of Meier and Rudwick

Answer 39

Boycott in the Streetcars was a prelude to the mid-twentieth century boycotts but it was not surprising they failed

Question 40

What was the argument of Randall Kennedy?

Answer 40

While it was important, there were still issues, King understood what was the point in being able to buy a Hamburger is you cant afford it - accomplishments and aftermath teach us lessons on how to reflect certain truths