>> This is cross-posted at dailykos
Segregated seating on the buses did not end in Montgomery until 382 days after Rosa Parks had her day in municipal court (she lost her plea).
A federal court order from SCOTUS was delivered to Montgomery 12 months later, December 20, 1956. On that day, the boycott of Montgomery city buses was cancelled and black and white people could finally sit in the same rows on buses.
The defiance of Rosa Parks and 4 other women set off a yearlong rancorous legal battle that wound up at the US Supreme Court.
At the end of a year of civil disobedience in Montgomery, the Supreme Court struck down the city’s segregated bus law. The case was Browder v. Gayle, named for plaintiff Aurelia Browder and Montgomery’s mayor WA Gayle.
Here’s something to think about while Bush gets himself ready to nominate a judge “who isn’t an activist” and as Rosa Parks’ body is brought into the US Capitol to lie in state.
Parks was arrested by the city of Montgomery for defying a local ordinance that required her to give up her seat for a white man riding the bus.
On December 5, 1955 (5 days after her arrest), Rosa Parks lost her plea at her day in court.
Parks was found guilty and fined for the offense. A community was galvanized that day and launched its bus boycott. Black riders refused to travel the “privately run” segregated bus system of the city of Montgomery.
On February 1, 1956 a suit was filed for 4 women, Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, Claudette Colvin and Mary L. Smith to fight Montgomery’s bus segregation. They were arrested also in 1955 for sitting in the wrong section of the bus.
On January 30, 1956 Dr. King’s home was bombed. His wife and their baby daughter escaped without injury. When Dr. King arrived home he found an angry mob waiting. . . .
The boycott continued for over a year. It eventually took the United States Supreme Court to end the boycott. On November 13, 1956 the Court declared that Alabama’s state and local laws requiring segregation on buses were illegal.
The first activist court to rule the city’s segregation code unlawful was a US district court in June.
On November 13, 1956, the US Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision to strike down the Montgomery law because it deprived “Negro citizens” of 14th amendment equal protection and due process.
Finally, on Nov. 13, 1956, in the case of Browder vs. Gayle, the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregation on the city’s buses. The court order arrived in Montgomery on Dec. 20; the boycott ended the next day.
More on the court case and testimony can be found here.
In my view —
| Rosa Parks did not end bus segregation; she took a stand. The Supreme Court put a stop to it when it struck down the law.
An activist court bucked the local legislators and the majority citizenry of the state to end segregation. |
Rosa Parks’ body will lie in state tonight 6:30 pm to midnight, and Monday morning 7:00 am to 10:00 am.
There’s a memorial service at Metropolitan AME Church, 1518 M St. NW in D.C. Monday at 1:00.
<u>Please bring a sign</u>: “Parks launched a court case, activist Supreme Court outlawed Montgomery bus laws – 1956”
There can be no finer tribute to her cause.
Postscript. Even after this ruling, more bus seat segregation battles, similar to Montgomery’s, had to be continually fought for other locales — in the courtroom.