Montgomery bus boycott

E1616

The Montgomery bus boycott was a pivotal 1955–1956 civil rights protest in Alabama in which African Americans refused to ride city buses to challenge racial segregation, helping launch the modern Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King Jr.’s national leadership.


Statements (50)
Predicate Object
instanceOf bus boycott
civil rights protest
mass boycott
nonviolent resistance campaign
affected Montgomery City Lines bus company revenues
commemoratedOn Rosa Parks Day in some U.S. states
country United States
duration 381 days
endDate 1956-12-20
goal end racial segregation on Montgomery city buses
secure equal treatment for Black bus riders
hasCause arrest of Rosa Parks
racial segregation on Montgomery city buses
hasMediaCoverage national television and newspaper reports in the United States
historicalPeriod Jim Crow era in the American South
influenced later bus boycotts and sit-ins across the South
modern American Civil Rights Movement
leader E. D. Nixon
Jo Ann Robinson
Martin Luther King Jr.
Ralph Abernathy
legalCase Browder v. Gayle
location Montgomery, Alabama
mainParticipant African American residents of Montgomery
E. D. Nixon
Jo Ann Robinson
Martin Luther King Jr.
Montgomery Improvement Association
Rosa Parks
method boycott of city buses
carpool system
walking instead of riding buses
movementIdeology Christian nonviolence
racial equality and desegregation
opposedBy City of Montgomery authorities
segregationist white citizens in Montgomery
organizedBy Montgomery Improvement Association
local Black community leaders in Montgomery
partOf Civil Rights Movement
precededBy longstanding complaints about mistreatment of Black bus riders in Montgomery
result U.S. Supreme Court ruling that bus segregation in Montgomery was unconstitutional
desegregation of Montgomery city buses
increased national attention to the Civil Rights Movement
rise of Martin Luther King Jr. as a national civil rights leader
significance considered one of the first large-scale demonstrations against segregation in the U.S.
significantEvent Rosa Parks refusing to give up her bus seat on December 1, 1955
startDate 1955-12-05
tactic economic pressure on the bus company
nonviolent civil disobedience
triggeredBy Rosa Parks' arrest on December 1, 1955


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