Walking for Freedom, The Montgomery Boycott (continued)

WALKING FOR FREEDOM: THE MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT, continued

Getting Ready to Boycott - Chapter 3
Mrs. Robinson knew just what to do. As soon as she heard about Mrs. Parks, she called the Women's Political Council. She told them what had happened. They all agreed that this was the moment they had been waiting for. It wsa time to boycott the Montgomery buses. Mr. Nixon and other leaders liked the idea, too.

Mrs. Robinson got busy quickly. The very evening of the day Mrs. Parks was arrested, Mrs. Robinson went to her college. She wrote a leaflet telling people about the boycott.

"If we do not do something to stop these arrests, they will continue," she wrote. "We are asking every Negro to stay off the buses Monday in protest of the arrest and trial. Don't ride the buses to work, to town, school, or anywhere on Monday."

She stayed up all night making thousands of copies of the leaflet. The next morning, students helped her take the leaflets to black homes and businesses all over Montgomery. By Friday afternoon, December 2, many black people knew about the boycott.

Mr. Nixon was busy, too. He phoned the community leaders and the ministers or the black leaders. "We need to plan how we'll carry out the boycott," he told them. He asked them to meet at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church that evening.

Mr. Nixon also wanted to make sure that everybody knew about the boycott. He was even willing to risk letting whites know about it. So he called Joe Azbell editor of the Montgomery Advertiser. "I've got a big story for you and I want you to meet me," he said.

Mr. Azbell met him at the railroad station. Wearing a porter's jacket and black cap. Mr. Nixon showed the editor one of Mrs. Robinson's leaflets. We're gonna boycott these buses," he said.
"We're tired of them fooling with our women - they done if for the last time." Nixon's voice was angry and sharp. But he wasn't mad at Azbell. He was mad at the Montgomery law, the bus drivers, and the mayor.

"You're gonna put this on the front page?" he asked the editor.

"Yeah, I'm gonna try to," Mr. Azbell replied.

Pleased with his meeting, Mr. Nixon waved goodbye to Mr. Azbell. A front page news story would make sure everyone knew about the boycott. Then he got on a train headed for Atlanta, Georgia. He had to work that night and would not be able to go to the meeting at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

Meanhwhile, at the college, Mrs. Robinson got a note from her boss, Dr. renholm. He waterd to see her right away. When she entered his office, sha saw that he was angry. His lips were pressed tightly together, and his eyes were squinting. He looked at Mrs. Robinson. Then he help up one of the leaflets she'd written.

"What is this all about?" he asked shaply. "And what do you have to do with it?"

Mrs. Robinson was surprised and a little frightened. SHe stammered a little and explained what had happened to Mrs. Parks. :Other people have been arrested in the past. All they did was refuse to give up their seats to a white person," she said.

"Were there other seats?" Dr. Trenholm snapped. He knew that the law said that a black person had to give the seat to a white person only if there were no empty seat in the black section of the bus.

"No, there wasn't an empty seat," Mrs. Robinson said. Dr. Trenholm was still frowning. He walked back and forth looking down at the floor. But Mrs. Robinson could tell he was thinking carefully.

"Sit down and tell me about this," he said quickly.

Mrs. Robinson sat slowly. She was afraid Dr. Trenholm would fire her. After all, she had used the college's paper and copier. Whites would be angry if they found out. They might say the black college was stirring up trouble. Then the college would be in trouble!

But she also believed she had done the right thing. She took a deep breath to calm herself. Suddenly, she didn't care if she was fired or not.

She told Dr. Trenholm about the Women's Political Council and the work they were doing. "We would never do anything that would get the college in trouble," she assured him. "But somebody has to do somthing," she said boldly.

Finally she thought she'd said enough. She sighed and looked down at the floor. She wasn't sure what would happen next.

Dr. Trenholm was silent for a long time. Mrs. Robinson could tell that he was changing his mind. She looked at him sitting at his desk. His frown was gone. His face was not long and sad. He put his elbows on his desk and leaned forward. "Your group must continue to press for civil rights,"
he said. "But you have to be careful," he warned. He seemed tired. "You can't involve the college in this," he said, shaking his head.

Mrs. Robinson was relieved. As she turned to leave, Dr. Trenholm called her back. "You used college paper to run off these leaflets?" he asked.

Thzt's correct," she said. "The Women's Political Council owes the college for 17,500 sheets of paper. We will pay the bill immediately, sir." But the council didn't pay the bill. It had no money. Mrs. Robinson paid the bill with her own money.

That night more than fifty ministers and leaders met at the church on Dexter Avenue. Besides the ministers, there were also teachers, doctors, lawyers, businessmen, and postal workers. Mrs. Robinson was there too. Mr. Nixon had done a good job of getting everyone together.

The group made plans fo the boycott. They formed themselves into several committees. Each small group had a job to do.

One committee set up a carpool. People with private cars would pick up passengers and take them to work, school, shopping, or elsewhere. The committee decided where the passsengers should gather in order to be picked up. They also decided on which streets the cars would travel. That way, everybody would know where to get a ride.

Another committee got in touch with the black taxi drivers in Montgomery. The drivers agreed to take passengers for the same fare the passengers paid on the buses - ten cents.

Everyone agreed that there should be a big meeting Monday night after the day-long boycott. At that meeting they would decide whether or not to continue the boycott.

"We need to let everyone know about that meeting," one leader said. One of the inisters agreed to help write a new leaflet. He was dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a newcomer to Montgomery. At age 26, he was younger than most of the other leaders and ministers in the black community. Here's what Dr. King and his committee wrote:

Don't ride the bus to work, to town, to school, or any place Monday, December 5.

Another Negro woman has been arrested and put in jail because she refused to give up her bus seat.

Don't ride the buses to work, to town, to school, or anywhere on Monday. If you work, take a cab, or share a ride, or walk.

Come to a mass meeting, Monday at 7:00 P.M., at the Holt Street Baptist Church for further instruction.

Dr. King and another minister, Ralph Abernathy, worked until midnight. They made thousands of copies of the leaflet, just as Mrs. Robinson had done. The next morning, Dr. King and Mr. Abernathy walked door-to-door in the black community. They helped other men, womrn, and young people pass out the leaflets.

For two days, the boycott had been more or less a secret. Very few white people in Montgomery knew about it. But on Sunday morning, all that changed. A story on the front page of the Montgomery Advertiser told about the boycott. Mr. Azbell had written the story using Mr. Nixon's information. He'd also used information from Mrs. Ribinson's and Dr. King's leaflets.

Some whites were angry and upset. The chief of police went on television. He angrily spoke against the boycott. "Negro goon squads are scaring blacks from riding the buses," he falsely charged. "The police will help anyone who wants to ride the buses," he announced.

"I figure the niggers will just get right back into them buses like they always done," another white said. "They'll move right to them back seats like always." Like soem ohter whites, this person didn''t think black people would stand up for their rights.

Black churches were full of joyful singing, preaching and praying on Sunday morning. The ministers reminded church members to stay of the buses on Monday.

But some blacks were still not sure about the boycott. Some of them were afraid their white bosses would fire them. They knew theier bosses could find almost any reason to let them go. Causing trouble over segregation was as good a reason as any. Some blacks were also afraid that the boycott might lead to bloodshed and death. They afraid of what some whites might do when the boycott started.

Would enough people stay off the buses to make the boycott a success? As the sun set Sunday evening, no one knew for sure.

No Riders Today! - Chapter 4

Dr. King's wife, Coretta, looked out the window early Monday morning. What she saw did not make her happy. It was a gray, cold, cloudy day. It wasn't the kind of day that would make people want to walk to work or stand around waiting for cars. She wondered whether people really would stay off the buses on a day like this.

Soon, Mrs. King saw the headlights of one of the buses. As the bus drew closer, she could see inside. She saw the driver - and no one else. She looked again to make sure. Then she shouted to Dr. King, who was in the kitchen. "Martin, Martin, come quickly!"

Dr. King raced to the window. Mrs. King pointed to the bus. She was excited and proud. "Darling, it's empty!" she said, her voice full of joy.

Dr. King was amazed. He knew this bus was usually full of black people on their way to work. But today it rumbled slowly by, as empty as could be.

Dr. King was still not sure the boycott was working, however. He wondered whether all the b uses would be as empty. He and Mrs. King waited anxiously for the next bus.

Sure enough, 15 minutes later, another empty bus rolled by. And after that, another one, with just two whie people on it.

Dr. King wanted to see more. He got into his car and drove around Montgomery. He passed bus after bus for over and hour. During the whole time, he saw no more than eight black people riding the buses. He noticed that not many whites were riding the buses, either. Some of them had stayed off toe help the boycott.

Instead he saw black men, women, and children walking. He saw them riding black-owned cars and taxis. He even saw some people riding mules and some riding in buggies pulled by horses.

Some people walked as much as 12 miles to and from work or school. And they walked proudly. They knew why they were walking. They were walking for their rights - for their self-respect.

At some bus stops, children laughed and made faces as the buses rolled by. They joked about the "yellow monsters" and sang out, "No riderss today!" Some adults, too, pointed and laughed att eh empty buses. "Who will you kick now? they shouted to the buses.

Dr. King and teh other leaders were happy. The boycott was even more successful than they'd hoped it would be. Almost no one from the black community rode the buses. And almost no one from the black community shopped in the stores downtown. The buses and the businesses lost money. This showed the mayor that the black community wsa strong. It showed the city and the bus drivers that they could not get away with treating blacks unfairly.

But there was still work to do. Monday afternoon, the community leaders met. They began to make plans for the big meeting that night. First, they voted on a new name for their group. They called themselves the Montgomery Improvement Association, or MIA for short. Next, they elected Dr. King as the president of their group. Mr. Nixon was elected treasurer.

The new group decidd that black people should not ride the buses again until certain changes were made. They made a list of the changes they wanted.

1. Drivers must be polite to black riders.
2. Black riders can take any seat starting from the back and going forward. White riders can take any seat, starting from the front and going backward. Nobody has to get up to give another person a seat.
3. Black bus drivers should be hired for routes in teh black neighborhoods.

Five thousand people came to the Holt Street Baptist Church that night. People filled every corner of the church. Hundreds of people stood outside in teh cold weather. Some stood on boxes and peeked through the windows.

At first the crowd was quiet and curious. They had never been part of a boycott before. They didn't know what was going to happen at teh church. Many of them had never heard of Dr. King.

Soon, Dr. King began to speak. Loudspeakers carried his deep voice to the people outside the church. "We are here this evening - for serious business," he said slowly. A few people murmured "yes" as he paused before continuing. Dr. King could tell that most of the people in teh crowd were holding back. They were waiting for him to fill them with a feeling of pride, hope, and courage about the boycott.

As he spoke, his powerful voice rang out. "We are here" he said, because... we are American citizens." He reminded them of what had happened to Mrs. Parks. "Just because she refused to give up - to give up her seat to a white person."

Each time he paused, more and more people shouted "yes" and "Amen." They understood the unfairness of what had happened. They were angry, too. They agreed with Dr. King that Mrs. Parks was a brave and noble woman. "And just because she refused to get up, she was arrested," he repeated. THere were more shouts and a few people clapped.

After they quited down, he went on. His voice was even stronger now. His eyes blazed as he looked at teh crowd, and sweat began to show on his brow. "And you know, my friends, " he said, "There comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression."

The crowd exploded with a chorus of "yes." They were with him now. The strong voice and carefully chosen words of Dr. King had filled them with the pride of being citizens who had a right to be treated better. They listened and then answered his words with clapping and shouting. He asked them to work together and stand up for their rights.

When he finished, everyone clapped and shouted wildly. He had made an important speech that they would remember for a long time.

Finally, Mr. Abernathy asked everyone if they wanted to end the boycott. "No!" roared the crowd. One strong voice proudly shouted out what everyone was thinking. "This is just the beginning!" And everyone clapped and yelled in loud agreement.

Epilogue

Indeed, it was only the beginning. Whiite officials refused to change the bus segregation law. Bus drivers refused to be polite. Instead, the officials tried to force blacks to ride the buses again. The declared the boycott illegal. Black leaders, including Dr. King, Mrs. Robinson, and Mr. Nixon, were arrested.

Then a few whites became violent. They ruined Mrs. Robinson's new car by throwing acid on it. Theybombed the homed of Dr. King, Mr. Abernathy, and Mr. Nixon.

Some people walked even when they were offered rides. One grandmother shook her head and said "No thanks" when someone offered her a ride. "I'm walking for my children and my grandchildren," she said proudly. Black people stayed off the Montgomery buses.

From around the world, people sent money to help the Montgomery Improvement Association. The money helped pay the bail bonds for leaders who were arrested. That way the leaders did not have to stay in jail.

The money also helped pay someone to keep the cars and taxis on schedule just like the buses, planes, and trains. That way, people were able to get where they had to be on time.

Finally on November 13, 1956, the boycotters won a great victory. The Supreme Court agreed with three judges who had ruled that the Montgomery bus-segregation law was not legal. The ruling became official on December 20. It stated that black people must be allowed to sit anywhere they chose, front or back. Thirteen months after it began, the boycott was finally over.

Black citizens of Montgomery were relieved. They were glad that teh law was finally on their side. They were glad the boycott had worked. But there was no big celebration.

I don't recall that I felt anything great about it," said Mrs. Parks many years later. "It didn't feel like a victory, really," she said.

Many people remembered the bitter events of the past year. They had fought a long. hard battle, and now it was over. Perhaps they were sad that they had to fight it at all. Perhaps they knew that many more battles remained to be fought. They boycott had been the first big blos to segregation. But many more such blows were needed before segregation would be defeated. It was a good beginning, but it was just a beginning.

Early on December 21, Dr. King, Mr. and Mrs. Abernathy, E.D. Nixon, and a white man, Glen Smiley, got on a city bus.

As Dr. King paid his fare, the driver smiled. "I believe you are Reverend King, aren't you?" je asled/

"Yes, I am," Dr. King replied. smiling back.

"We are glad to have you this morning," said the driver.

"Thank you," said Dr. King, and he took a seat in the front of the bus.

Please stay tuned. It was reported on ABC 7 that Captain Vanessa Coleman's case has been taken up by the Government Accountability Project, a law firm that protects whistleblowers. This means that the Mount Pleasant Fire will be fully investigated for the first time! The second thing of note is that it's been reported that a number of the young people who were fired from teh academy for allegedly not satisfying the academic side of the test, who had complained about unfair treatment and harassment, have been reinstated. Those interested, please contact us and you will be furnished with more information. E.R.A.S.E. sees these two aforementioned happenings as a s uccess... and to those who attempted to spam this blog with McCain McCain McCain, the Spook says Obama! Obama! Obama!! Racism in the DC Fire Department will be a thing of the past. This election has proven that people of all colors can come together for change, and recism will be identified as a thing of the past.

In this confused world, where a few white supremacists, operating in a backdrop of the market economy that is based on exploitation, where there is public production and private expropriation/profiting; where the rights of people are denied, based on gender, race, religion and gender preference; where people are discriminated against because of their age. The Spook wants to offer a short story about an era where public accommodations were used to force second class citizenship on a numerically dominant population. These people decided to use an ingenious and very effective tool to confront this exercise in white supremacy. I am talking about the boycott. A boycott is to abstain, from using, buying, or dealing with, as a means of protest, the ultimate goal being to impact the bottom line of the oppressor and/or his friends. Boycotting has been used hundreds of times and has been extremely successful. I am putting this forward as a possible tool to deal with the institutional problems of the fire department and the union, to crack the jaws of racism! This seemed particularly appropriate since today, December 1st, is the 53rd anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. And today, like then, a few uneducated white men, are pushing a maniacal idea of racism on blacks and other minorities and including other white people; when even the election of Barack Obama to the presidency of this country, has proven that that idea has outlived its usefulness, and should be relegated to the dung heap of bad ideas like sun revolving around the earth, or the earth is flat, or Columbus discovered something. – The Spook
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The story you are about to read is about what happened when a community of people say, “Enough.” Enough unfairness. Enough segregation. Enough and no more. It’s a story of how a community’s courage and determination can rob the bee of its sting.

No Way to Start a Vacation – Chapter 1
A chilly winter wind was howling around Mrs. Jo Ann Robinson’s car. It was the day before Christmas 1949, in Montgomery, Alabama. Mrs. Robinson was driving back from the Montgomery airport. She had just dropped off her bags and packages at the airport for her trip home to Cleveland, Ohio. She diedn;t want to leave her car out in the open parking lot while she was away, so she was driving back to her house to park it in her garage.

She arrived home and listened to just a few more seconds of Christmas music before turning off the car. Then she locked the car in the garage and walked to the bus stop near her house. She planned to take the bus to a friend’s house. Then she and her friend would drive to the airport and take a plane home to Cleveland.

The cold wind nipped at her face and legs as she waited for the bus. But she didn’t mind it. She was happily thinking ahead to the wonderful Christmas vacation she was going to have.

Soon a yellow bus came chugging along and stopped. She got on without even thinking about it. Her mind was full of vacation thoughts. She dropped her fare in the box. Then she took an empty seat just a few rows from the front. She hardly noticed the other passengers on the bus. One was a white woman who sat ahead of her in the third row. The other was a black woman who was near the back.

As the bus began to go, Mrs. Robinson gazed out of the window. A pretty smile came to her light-brown face as she thought about her family and friends in Cleveland. She was eager to see them. She wanted to tell them all about her first four months of teaching at a black college in Montgomery.

Time seemed to disappear as Mrs. Robinson imagined talking to her family and friends. But after a few moments, she thought she heard an angry voice poking its way into her happy thoughts. At first she didn’t pay any attention. She was still smiling to herself, and her thoughts were far away.

Then she heard the voice again. It was closer and angrier this time. She turned her head, and there, standing next to her, was the bus driver, his face twisted into a scowl.

“Get up from there!” the driver yelled at her. She hadn’t even noticed that he’d stopped the bus and stomped back to her seat. “Get up from there! ” he yelled again. His right hand was raised as if he were about to hit her.

Mrs. Robinson was a qui=et, thoughtful person. She was polite, and she expected others to be polite to her. The driver’s behavior upset and frightened her. She didn’t know why he was yelling at her, but she was shocked and too afraid to ask. She surely didn’t want to be hit by this big man. She darted out of her seat and ran to the door, tears falling from her eyes.

Full of shame and hurt, she scrambled off the bus. “I felt like a dog,” she said later. She was glad none of her students were there to see what happened.

Suddenly, she realized what had made the driver yell at her. She’d sat in one of the rows of “whites only” seats.

In those days in Montgomery, a city law said that seats on the buses were segregated. That meant seats in the front part of the bus were only for white people. Black people had to sit in the back part of the bus. If there weren’t enough seats for whites, blacks had to give up their seats.

The law pretended to be “fair.” It said that blacks could only be asked to give up their seats it there were empty seats in the back. But in practice this wasn’t true. Even if it meant black people had to stand, they were made to give up their seats. Even if there were no white passengers at all, blacks could not sit in the first five rows of seats on a bus.

Some of the white bus drivers made the law seem even worse. They yelled at black passengers and called them names. After black passengers had paid their fares, drivers would sometimes order them to get back off the bus and walk to the backdoor to board. The worst of the drivers might then drive off before the black passengers could get back on the bus.

Mrs. Robinson had lived in Montgomery only a short time. Usually she didn’t ride city buses because she had a car. She had been told about the segregated seating. But it was the furthest thing from her mind when she took a seat on the bus that day.

Still, the bus driver had no right to mistreat her just because she’d forgotten about a law that made no sense. Her shame and fear turned to anger. During her vacation she kept thinking about how unfair and cruel the driver had been. She wanted to do something about it.

When she got back to Montgomery, she met with members of the Women’s political Council. Most of the women in this group were professionals. They were teachers, nurses, school principals, and social workers. Like many other black community groups in Montgomery, they were trying to improve the way blacks lived in their city. They worked to fight crime, to educate people, and to get people to vote.

Mrs. Robinson told the group about what had happened to her. They she listened as others told their stories.

“Oh, worse things than that have happened to me,” said one woman. “Drivers have called me names I can’t repeat here,” the woman recalled.

“A driver refused to make change for me, but he made change for white people,” another woman reported. “He wouldn’t let me on the bus,”

“You know, the drivers are just as mean to black men. If we or the men stand up to the drivers, they’ll call the police and have us arrested,” said another teacher. “Then we might lose our jobs,” she added.

Mrs. Robinson realized that what had happened to her had happened to many people. This did not make her any happier, though.

A few months later, in 1950, Mrs. Robinson became the president of the Women’s Political Council. Right away she called the mayor of Montgomery, Mr. Gayle. “We would like to meet with you and other city officials,” she said. “We’d like to work together with you to solve some problems that black people face when riding the buses.”

The mayor invited Mrs. Robinson and a few other women to City Hall. He was friendly. He listened to Mrs. Robinson and other women from the council. But he did not order any changes in the bus law, and he didn’t change the way the drivers behaved toward black people.

Enough Is Enough – Chapter 2
Year after year went by. The Women’s Political Council kept getting reports from blacks about bad treatment on the Montgomery buses. They complained to the mayor; but he refused to do anything about it.

Many black people were getting fed up with the buses and drivers. Some men chose to walk to work rater than take the bus. But most people kept on riding. They believed it was too dangerous to fight back. They were afraid that they would lose their jobs because most of them worked for white people. If they pushed too hard for change, they might even be killed.

In May of 1954, however, the Women’s Political Council had had enough. It had been more than five years since Mrs. Robinson had first met with the council. They had been patient too long.

The mayor announced that the bus fares were being raised. Blacks in Montgomery were angry. They didn’t mind paying more to ride the buses. But they did mind paying more when they were treated unfairly by the law and poorly by the drivers.

On May 21, Mrs. Robinson wrote a letter to Mayor Gayle. She and the Women’s Political Council demanded changes in the bus system. They wanted the drivers to stop ordering blacks to board at the back of the bus after they’d already paid at the front. They wanted buses to stop at every corner in black neighborhoods, just as they did in white neighborhoods.

Mrs. Robinson reminded Mayor Gayle that many more blacks than whites rode the buses. She warned him that changes had better be made. Otherwise, blacks would stop riding the buses. They would boycott the buses! Then the buses would lose money.

Mayor Gayle did not answer Mrs. Robinson’s letter. So the black community prepared to carry out the council’s plan. It took more than a year to get ready. Nearly seventy community groups had to be told about the plan. Church groups, business groups, and social groups all talked about the plan. Some groups were still afraid of causing “trouble” by boycotting the buses. But they all agreed that something had to be done. Finally, the leaders of most of the groups agreed on the idea of a boycott. All they needed was the right moment.

That moment came on the afternoon of December 1, 1955. Mrs. Rosa Parks got on a bus in downtown Montgomery. She was tired from her busy job of sewing clothes at a department store. She got on the Cleveland Avenue bus and say down in the black section near the back.

The bus rumbled from stop to stop. More and more people got on. Some were white, some were black. Soon there were no more seats in the black section. Many blacks were standing. The white section filled up, too. Then a white man got on and couldn’t find a seat.

The driver, James Blake shouted to the back of the bus. He told Mrs. Parks and three other black people to get up so that the white man could sit down. Blacks weren’t even allowed to sit next to whites on a bus. To make “room” for one white rider; four seated black riders were being ordered to move. Mrs. Parks and the other black riders said nothing. And they didn’t move.

“Y’all better make it light on yourself and let me have those seats,” Mr. Blake warned. The two black people sitting across from Mrs. Parks slowly but surely got up. They didn’t want to get up. They knew it was unfair. But they got up anyway. So did the man sitting next to Mrs. Parks. But Mrs. Parks kept her seat.

Mr. Blake looked at Mrs. Parks in the rearview mirror. “Are you going to stand up?” he asked raising his voice.

“No, I’m not,” Mrs. Parks said firmly.

Mr. Blake stopped the bus and came back to where Mrs. Parks was sitting. He put his hands on his hips and gave her a mean look. “Well, if you don’t stand up, I’m going to call the police and have you arrested.”

Mrs. Parks was a gentle, quiet woman. But she was also proud and strong. She looked squarely at Mr. Blake and said simply, “You may do that.”

Mrs. Blake marched off the bus and returned with two policemen. One of the policemen folded his arms and looked at Mrs. Parks. “Did the driver ask you to get up? He asked.

“Yes,” said Mrs. Parks calmly. Her voice showed she ws not afraid.

The policeman leaned forward and frowned. “Why don’t you stand up?” he asked, getting angry.

Now it was Mrs. Parks’s turn to frown. She looked at the three men. Her eyes showed her anger. “Why do you push us around?” she demanded.

“I don’t know,” said the policeman. “But the law is the law and you’re under arrest.”

The policemen took Mrs. Parks to jail. They took her fingerprints as if she was a criminal. She had broken the law, but the law was unfair. It was based on the idea that black people were not as good as white people. This idea was very different from one of America’s most important ideas – that all people are created equal.

Mrs. Parks called home. She spoke to her mother. “Please tell my husband to come and get me out of jail,” she said in a tired, angry voice. Mr. Parks was not at home, so Mrs. Parks’s mother called Mr. E.D.Nixon.

Mr. Nixon was an important leader in the black community. A tall, dark-skinned man, he worked as a porter for the railroad. And he worked hard to make life better for black people in Montgomery.

When he heard that Mrs. Parks had been arrested, he got busy. He called the jail to find out why she’d been arrested. But the jailer would not hell him. So he called his friend, Clifford Durr, a white lawyer.

Together, Mr. Nixon and Mr. Durr got Mrs. Parks released from jail. Mr. Nixon paid a bond that allowed Mrs. Parks to leave. He would get the money back when she came before a judge to be tried for breaking the bus law.

Mr. Nixon believed the law was unfair, too. He wanted to put a stop to it. As he talked to Mrs. Parks, he had a n idea.. In Washington, DC, the Supreme Court had just made a ruling. The ruling said that segregated schools were no longer legal. That meant black and white children could no longer be sent to separate schools. All states had to obey this ruling. If segregated schools aren’t legal anymore, Mr. Nixon thought, maybe segregated buses aren’t either.

“I think we can break down segregation on the bus with your case,” Mr. Nixon told Mrs. Parks.

It was a hard decision for Mrs. Parks to make. If she stood up to the segregation law, bad things might happen to her. She might lose her job. She might be thrown in jail again. She might be hurt or even killed. She wanted to talk to her husband about it.

Mr. Parks was very upset. He knew all the dangers his wife would face. She had already been arrested just for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. By carrying the protest further, his wife would be asking for serious trouble. “The white folks will kill you Rosa,” he said. He wanted her to let the matter drop.

But Mrs. Parks was very brave. She wanted to do something to help the black peple of Montgomery. She wanted to make the city a better place for everyone. “I’ll go along with you, Mr. Nixon,” she said.

Mrs. Nixon and other black leaders began making plans. They were going to show that Mrs. Parks should not have been arrested. They were going to show that Montgomery’s black citizens weren’t going to accept the bus loaw anymore. They were going to show that black people were tired of being treated unfairly.

THIS STORY WILL BE FINISHED AT THE END OF THIS WEEK. We welcome any comments.
Taken from Walking for Freedom, The Montgomery Bus Boycott by Richard Kelso, Alex Haley, General Editor