the major protests between 1955-65

Question 1

Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-56)

Answer 1

what it was?
- the MIA (Montgomery Improvement Association) coordinated the boycott and MLK was its President.
- AA refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, to protest segregated seating.
- The boycott was December 5th 1955, to December 20th 1956, and is regarded as the first large-scale U.S. demonstration against segregation.
- Four days before the boycott began, Rosa Parks, was arrested and fined for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man which triggered the boycott.
- The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ordered Montgomery to integrate its bus system.
- One of the leaders of the boycott, a young pastor named MLK jr., emerged as a prominent leader of the American civil rights movement.

Significance? The bus boycott demonstrated the potential for nonviolent mass protest to successfully challenge racial segregation and served as an example for other southern campaigns that followed. As a result of the boycott, June 5, 1956: Montgomery federal court ruled that any law requiring racially segregated seating on buses violated the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was successful in establishing the goal of integration on buses.

Question 2

Lunch Counter Sit-Ins (1960)

Answer 2

what it was?
- The Greensboro sit-in was a civil rights protest that started in 1960
- a young African American students staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina - they refused to leave after being denied service.
- many of the protesters were arrested for trespassing, disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace.
- The Greensboro Four were four young Black men who staged the first sit-in at Greensboro.
- February 1st 1960: the four students sat down at the lunch counter at the Woolworth’s in downtown Greensboro, where the official policy was to refuse service to anyone but whites. Denied service, the four young men refused to give up their seats.
- Police arrived but were unable to take action due to the lack of provocation.
- this gained major media attention
- Sit ins became majorly popular and progressed into other areas and facilities and 70,000 black and white people began to participate.

Significance? Its use of nonviolence inspired the Freedom Riders and others to take up the cause of integration in the South, furthering the cause of equal rights in the United States.In response to the success of the sit-in movement, dining facilities across the South were being integrated by the summer of 1960. At the end of July, when many local college students were on summer vacation, the Greensboro Woolworth’s quietly integrated its lunch counter.

Question 3

Freedom Rides (1961)