Lesson 1: Riding the Bus - Taking a Stand

1. Background information for teachers:

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, was arrested for refusing to obey a Montgomery bus driver's order to give her seat up for a boarding white passenger as required by city ordinance. Such municipal and state laws designed to separate the races were common in the South at the time. These segregation codes were increasingly onerous to African Americans, especially after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka struck down legal barriers to school integration in 1954. Outrage in Montgomery's black community over the arrest of Rosa Parks sparked a boycott against the city's bus line -- the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement.

Working closely with a long-active African-American leadership extant in Montgomery, Atlanta-born Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. emerged as the president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) which organized the boycott. As the MIA's demands expanded beyond more flexibility in bus seating to include more equal access to other municipal services, racial tensions increased during the standoff. Preaching a course of non-violence, Dr. King was convinced that the cause could be won through a combination of dignified behavior and economic pressure on the part of the protesters.

The Boycott ended in December 1956, over a year after it began, when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the desegregation of buses in Montgomery.

NOTE: For additional information regarding the Montgomery Bus Boycott, see Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson; edited, with a foreword by David J. Garrow. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, c. 1987.

Additional information:
Civil Rights Era Mugshots of several bus boycott participants

2. Learning objectives:
Upon completion of this lesson, students should be able to:

1. Identify the policy of segregation which existed in Alabama.
2. Define the legal idea of being "separate but equal."
3. Define and describe an editorial.
4. Discuss the impact of social unrest and inequality upon economic development.
5. Describe Dr. King's theory of non-violence and its impact upon the Civil Rights Movement.

3. Suggested Actvities:

1. Make copies of Documents 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 for the students.
2. Read Document 1, Sec. 10 - 11 aloud. Have the class discuss city laws and Mrs. Parks' arrest on December 1, 1955.
(According to police reports from the time period, Rosa Parks was charged with violating Sec. 11.)
3. Allow the students to read Document 3.
4. As a class, list the requests for changes as reported in Document 3.
5. Allow the students to read Document 4. After having read Document 4, tell the students that these items were presented to the Montgomery City Council in 1955 prior to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
What similarities and differences can be found between the requests presented in Document
3and those presented in Document 4?
7. Show the students an overhead transparency of Document 5. Ask the students why they believe Mr. Diamond took this position. What kinds of conclusions can be drawn about other businesses and economic investments in Alabama during this time period?
8. Allow the students to read Document 6.
What is the stand of the editor?
Is the issue being discussed desegregation of buses or is the issue the dismissal of the
"separate but equal" policy for every situation?
10. Allow the students to read Document 7. After reading the document, discuss with students their opinions concerning the suggestions. Point out the pattern of nonviolence that Dr. King used as a part of the Civil Rights Movement. Why was nonviolence an important issue to Dr. King?
11. Ask each student to make a list of rules for riding a school bus or for working together in a classroom.
12. With the students' assistance, make a class list of rules for riding a school bus or for working together in a classroom.
13. Give each student a copy of Document 7.
14. Ask the students to mark those suggestions which match the class list for riding a school bus or for working together in a classroom.
15. Ask the students the following questions:
a. Which of these rules deal with politeness and courtesy?
b. Why do you think that good manners would be important during a situation like this?
c. Why are good manners and courtesy important to all people?

DOCUMENTS: INSERT/SCAN:

Document 1. Code of the City of Montgomery, Alabama. Charlottesville: Michie City Publishing Co., 1952. Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama
Document 2. Montgomery Advertiser article, 12/06/55, Alabama Department of Archives and History Public Information Subject Files - General File, Bus Boycott, SG6945, folder 305b. Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama.
Document 3. Montgomery Advertiser article, 12/9/55, Alabama Department of Archives and History Public Information Subject Files - General File, Bus Boycott, SG6945, folder 305b. Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama
Document 4. "Negroes' Most Urgent Needs," Inez Jessie Baskin Papers, Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama.
Document 5. "Western Union Telegram: Diamond Brothers," Judge Eugene Carter Papers, Box 11, folder1. Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama.
Document 6. Montgomery Advertiser editorial, 4/26/56. Alabama Department of Archives and History Public Information Subject Files - General File, Bus Boycott, SG6945, folder 305b. Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama
Document 7. "Integrated Bus Suggestions," Inez Jessie Baskin Papers, Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama.