It was on this date back in 1956 that city buses in Montgomery were integrated. A decision by the U.S. Supreme Court the day before cleared the way for African American passengers to sit where they chose. A thirteen-month boycott was sparked when Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger. Madeline Burkhardt is with the Montgomery museum named for Parks. She says part of the job for the museum to present a complete picture of what went on back then…
“People who grew up, heard that the Montgomery Bus Boycott was super peaceful. And it was. But it was peaceful on one side of things,” Burkhardt recalled. “People who were against the boycott where being very violent. And that violence really picked up after integration on December 21, 1956.”
Rosa Parks and her husband left Montgomery and moved to Detroit due to harassment after the bus boycott. The two settled in Detroit. Madeline Burkhardt says it’s encouraging to see younger people following Parks’ example…
“They are turning out, at protest rallies, they’re on Tik Tok, they’re contacting people,” said Burkhardt They’re doing this kind of work that Mrs. Parks was hoping that young adults and teenagers would do.”
Doctor Martin Luther King, junior’s barber Nelson Malden recalled the first day of the Montgomery Bus Boycott for Alabama Public Radio. That story can be heard again with the link below…
