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Montgomery Bus Boycott
Timeline
Below is a complete timeline of the events which lead up to the
boycott, were part of the boycott, and followed the boycott:
1954:
May 21 - Professor Jo Ann Robinson writes a warning to the mayor of
Montgomery of the possibility
of a bus boycott.
September 1 - Martin Luther King Jr. becomes the pastor of the Dexter
Avenue Baptist Church
in Montgomery.
1955:
March 2 - Claudette Colvin, a fifteen year old African American, is
arrested for violating the bus
segregation laws.
October 21 - Mary Louise Smith, a eighteen year old African American,
is arrested for violating
the bus segregation laws.
December 1 - Rosa Parks, an African American, is arrested for violating
the bus segregation laws and is charged with disorderly conduct.
December 2 - The stage for the bus boycott is being set by the black
Montgomery activists, including Jo Ann Robinson, Fred Gray, and E. D.
Nixon.
December 5 - Rosa Parks is convicted and fined by the city court. A oneday boycott of the city buses has 90 percent of regular black riders
staying off the buses. Reverend King Jr. is elected the president of the
newly formed Montgomery Improvement Association. First MIA meeting
is held at the Holt Street Baptist Church, where the several thousand
black citizens who attend support the continuing of the bus boycott.
December 8 - A proposal about a bus seating policy that is more fair to
the blacks but is still segregated is made by the MIA spokesperson to the
city and bus company officials ends in a deadlock.
December 13 - MIA begins to operate a car pool system.
December 16 - A biracial committee is supposedly formed by the mayor
to negotiate
a compromise after the vice president of the bus company
meets with the city,
local bus officials, and leaders of MIA.
December 19 - The biracial committee meets but cannot reach a
compromise.
1956:
January 9 - MIA leaders meet with city commissioners.
January 23 - A tougher policy is announced by mayor Gayle, including
no
further negotiations with MIA.
January 26 - King is charged with speeding and is jailed by the
Montgomery police.
January 30 - Attorney Fred Gray urges the executive board of MIA to file
a federal
lawsuit challenging city and state bus segregation laws. Same
night, King's house is bombed, but no one is hurt.
February 1 - Fred Gray and Charles Langford file the Browder v. Gayle
lawsuit. Nixon's house is bombed, but no one is injured.
February 10 - A White Citizens Council rally takes place where citizens
applaud the city officials for fighting bus desegregation.
February 13 - A grand jury investigation is ordered by the Montgomery
circuit judge to see whether the bus boycott violates a state boycott
conspiracy law.
February 21 - A Montgomery County grand jury indicts about 90 bus
boycott leaders and charges them with violating a statue barring boycotts
without just cause.
March 19-22 - King is found guilty of violating the boycott conspiracy law
and is sentenced to a $500 fine.
March 28 - A National Deliverance's Day of Prayer takes place to
support the boycott.
April 23 - The Montgomery bus company decides to implement a policy
of desegregation after the U. S. Supreme Court dismisses the appeal of
a federal appeals court ruling outlawing bus segregation in South
Carolina.
April 24 - Bus companies in more than a dozen Southern cities stop the
practice of segregated seating in response to the Supreme Court
decision. But the Montgomery mayor declares that city bus segregation
will continue and the police threaten to arrest bus drivers who disobey
segregation laws.
May 1 - Montgomery officials seek an injunction from a state judge to
force the local bus company to comply with segregation laws. It is issued
a week later.
May 11 - A Montgomery federal court holds a hearing on the Browder v.
Gayle lawsuit challenging the bus segregation law.
June 5 - Federal judges Rives and Johnson rule that city and state bus
segregation laws are unconstitutional. Lynne dissents.
June 19 - Federal judges in MOntgomery issue an injunction against
segregation on Montgomery buses, but suspend its enforcement
pending an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
August 25 - The home of Robert Graetz, a white member of the MIA
board and Lutheran minister, is bombed, but no one is injured.
November 13 - U.S. Supreme Court upholds the Montgomery federal
courts Browder v. Gayle decision striking down Alabama's bus
segregation laws.
November 14 - By a unanimous vote, the bus boycott is voted to be
ended at the next MIA meeting.
December 17 - U.S. Supreme Court rejects the Montgomery City
Commissions appeal to the Browder v. Gayle decision.
December 20 - The Supreme Courts Browder ruling takes effect.
December 21 - Black citizens desegregate Montgomery buses after the
13-month boycott.
The bus company resumes full service.
December 23 - Someone fires into King's home.
December 24 - A 15-year-old girl is attacked at a bus stop by five white
men.
December 26 - Rosa Jordan is shot in both legs while riding the
Montgomery bus.
December 31 - A sniper fires into another city bus.
1957:
January 10 - Four churches and two homes are bombed. Another bomb
is found on the steps of the King's parsonage.