We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
from Entries
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2016
Rosa Parks's arrest, 1 December 1955, for refusing to give her seat to a white passenger inspired a 381-day protest in Montgomery, Alabama. It not only involved nonviolence and a US Supreme Court decision against bus segregation; it also meant international press coverage for civil rights and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s leadership.
The black community sustained the boycott, set by the Women's Political Council for December 5, when Parks, local NAACP secretary, went on trial. After her conviction, civic groups and churches formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), elected King of Dexter Avenue Baptist president, and called a mass meeting to continue the effort. MIA sued in Federal Court and negotiated with city authorities, as blacks walked, used taxicabs, and car pooled. Facing police harassment, legal injunctions, arbitrary arrests, and racist violence, which brought them publicity as well as allies, they used, in King's words, “a new and powerful weapon–nonviolent resistance.”
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
