Justice Withheld
One day in 1955, a black woman named Rosa Parks got onto the back of a city bus. The city buses had rules that were very unfair. White people and black people both paid for their bus fares at the front of the bus, but black people then had to enter at the back of the bus and stay there. Black people could not sit in the front of the bus, even if there were empty seats. Also, blacks sitting in the back of the bus had to give up their seats if a white person asked for it. Rosa Parks found a seat on the bus. Before the bus arrived at her stop, a white man demanded that she give up her seat and stand for the rest of the ride. Rosa was tired of being treated in this unjust way. White people didn’t have to give up their seats, so why should she? She did not yell or fight. Instead, she simply said “no.” This one simple word “no” was enough to get her arrested.
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The People Boycott
The arrest of Rosa Parks angered many people in Montgomery. It also made them start to think. They thought, why should a black person give up his or her seat on the bus? How could they agree to these unjust laws? And so, they decided that they would boycott the buses in Montgomery. In a boycott, people decide not to spend their money on a business that runs in an unjust way. The people of Montgomery decided that if black people could not ride the bus just like the white people, then they would not ride the buses at all, even if they had to walk for miles and miles to get to work or to school. This way, the government would lose money and everyone would see that the black people of Montgomery refused to ride buses when the laws were unfair.
The people of Montgomery got together to organize the protest, and they elected Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to be their leader. As the leader, Dr. King told everyone that the best way to change these unfair laws was to use nonviolent protest. Instead of reacting to an unfair law by fighting, yelling, or being violent, Dr. King told them to stay peaceful and simply refuse to obey unjust laws. The boycott was a good example of a nonviolent protest.
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The People React
Many people supported the efforts of the boycotters. Some people donated money to the boycott. Taxi drivers offered reduced fares. People who owned cars gave free rides to work. But other people were not supportive. Some people would yell at the boycotters and try to hurt them. Someone even set off a bomb in Dr. King’s house. The boycotters were scared and angry, but Dr. King said that it was wrong to respond with more violence. Instead, he told his friends to act with love even towards the people who treated them badly. He said, “We must love our white brothers no matter what they do to us.”
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Justice Wins Out
Eventually, the boycott worked. The city lost money when people didn’t ride the buses, and people all over the country started to see that the segregation laws were unjust. Soon, the United States Supreme Court declared that public buses had to be desegregated all over America. Dr. King was right. It was possible to change unfair laws without using violence.
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Think About It
Dr. King believed we should all be peaceful. How do you think it felt to be Rosa Parks on the bus? Rosa Parks did not yell or argue with the man who asked for her seat. Instead, she just said “no.” Can you think of ways to stay calm even when people are treating you badly?
