The video explores the Montgomery Bus boycott, one of the most significant and successful nonviolent protests in American history, which played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement. Sparked by Rosa Parks' arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man, the boycott lasted for 381 days and involved an estimated 40,000 participants. This protest challenged segregation laws and spearheaded a broader movement to combat racial injustice across the United States. The Montgomery Bus boycott is remembered for its strategic leadership, organizing efforts by groups such as the Women's Political Council, and its impact on the national stage.

Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat became a symbol for the movement due to the strategic decision by leaders to use her as the face of their campaign. Despite not being the first to resist bus segregation, her arrest galvanized a community effort and widespread support within the civil rights community. The video discusses how prior incidents of violence and resistance by African Americans in Montgomery set the stage for the boycott, highlighting the role of community leaders like Joanne Robinson and the appointment of Martin Luther King Jr. to a leadership position.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. boycott [ˈbɔɪˌkɒt] - (noun) - A protest in which people refuse to buy or use goods and services in order to force a change. - Synonyms: (protest, embargo, strike)

The Montgomery bus boycott, which took place from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956, was one of the most successful examples of mass nonviolent resistance in us history.

2. segregation [ˌsɛɡrɪˈɡeɪʃən] - (noun) - The enforced separation of different racial groups in a country, community, or establishment. - Synonyms: (separation, apartheid, division)

This boycott is regarded as being the first large scale us demonstration against segregation with an estimated 40,000 participants.

3. arbitrariness [ˌɑːrbɪˈtrerɪnəs] - (noun) - The quality of being based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system. - Synonyms: (randomness, capriciousness, unpredictability)

As historian gene Theoharis put it, the arbitrariness of segregation, the power and place it granted white people, was perhaps nowhere more evident than on the bus.

4. torrent [ˈtɔːrənt] - (noun) - A sudden, violent, and copious outpouring of something (typically words or feelings). - Synonyms: (deluge, outpouring, flood)

And because many black people did not own their own cars, many felt like they had nowhere else to turn but sometimes there's only so much that a person can take and talks of a bus boycott danced around barbershops, cookouts, and churches.

5. discrimination [dɪˌskrɪməˈneɪʃən] - (noun) - Unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex. - Synonyms: (prejudice, bias, intolerance)

This movement was the culmination of a long struggle against discrimination in the public sphere.

6. intimidation [ɪnˌtɪməˈdeɪʃən] - (noun) - The action of frightening or threatening someone, often to make them do what one wants. - Synonyms: (threatening, bullying, coercion)

But as successful as this boycott was, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. Like many black Americans who have stood up for equality at any point in time, boycotters face violence and intimidation tactics from surrounding white community.

7. galvanize [ˈɡælvəˌnaɪz] - (verb) - To shock or excite someone into taking action. - Synonyms: (motivate, inspire, spur)

Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat became a symbol for the movement due to the strategic decision by leaders to use her as the face of their campaign.

8. pervasive [pərˈveɪsɪv] - (adjective) - Spreading widely throughout an area or a group of people. - Synonyms: (widespread, prevalent, ubiquitous)

Episodes of violence and humiliation like these were pervasive amongst black Americans.

9. activism [ˈæktɪˌvɪzəm] - (noun) - The policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change. - Synonyms: (advocacy, involvement, campaigning)

And her history of activism with the NAACP that helped, too.

10. disobedience [ˌdɪsəˈbiːdiəns] - (noun) - The refusal to obey rules or someone in authority. - Synonyms: (rebellion, defiance, insubordination)

Still, bus boycotts set a new precedent for nonviolent civil disobedience dedicated to upending Jim Crow.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott - Crash Course Black American History #35

Hi, I'm Clint Smith and this is crash course black American history. The Montgomery bus boycott, which took place from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956, was one of the most successful examples of mass nonviolent resistance in U.S. history. This boycott is regarded as being the first large-scale U.S. demonstration against segregation with an estimated 40,000 participants. It came on the heels of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, which deemed separate but equal a violation of the 14th Amendment and therefore unconstitutional. But Brown v. Board only integrated public schools in the United States. segregation continued to run rampant in all other areas of society, including department stores, movie theaters, restaurants, and public transportation. As historian Gene Theoharis put it, the arbitrariness of segregation, the power and place it granted white people, was perhaps nowhere more evident than on the bus.

Before the boycott, transportation laws in Montgomery directly upheld white supremacy. The Montgomery City code mandated that black and white people were required to sit in separate sections on public transportation. Furthermore, bus drivers were legally allowed to arrest passengers who violated the mandate, and many of the drivers carried guns. Black patrons were assaulted, abused, arrested, ejected, and sometimes even killed for refusing to give up their seats, talking back, or even asking questions. Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her seat was the catalyst for the Montgomery bus boycott, was but one of a long line of black Americans who resisted the inequality of our public transportation system.

In Montgomery, eleven years before the boycott, in 1944, a woman named Viola White was beaten and arrested for refusing to give up her seat. Thurgood Marshall recounted one case of two members of the Women's Army Corps in 1945, and he described it as one of the worst cases he had ever seen. The two women in uniform refused to give up their seats and pointed out to the driver that there were seats available and they shouldn't have to move. But the driver and physically and verbally assaulted the women. In 1950, authorities took it a step further. In the case of a man named Hillard Brooks, black passengers were supposed to pay at the front of the bus, then exit the bus and board from the back straight into the colored section. Sometimes, after black people paid and got off to go to the back, bus drivers would drive off before passengers could even make it to the back door. A World War Two veteran, Brooks refused to exit after paying his money. When the police arrived, Officer Mills beat Brooks with a club, then shot and killed him as he tried to escape.

Episodes of violence and humiliation like these were pervasive amongst black Americans. And because many black people did not own their own cars, many felt like they had nowhere else to turn but sometimes there's only so much that a person can take and talks of a bus boycott danced around barbershops, cookouts, and churches. Then, in 1953, the Women's Political Council, or WPC, collected a formal list of around 30 complaints of abuse on Montgomery buses in an effort to petition the mayor. The WPC was a league of about 300 black women in Montgomery, founded in 1946 to develop strategies to combat community challenges in the face of Jim Crow laws. And in 1954, under the leadership of President Joanne Robinson, the WPC wrote a letter to the mayor warning him that if violence did not stop, black bus passengers would boycott.

In the years before the boycott, Robinson worked arduously with members of the WPC to create a plan. They strategized on how to notify the city's black population if and when the time came. They didn't know when it would come, but they knew they needed to be ready when it did. The December 1 arrest of Parks provided the perfect opportunity. As soon as word of the arrest reached Robinson, she knew that it was time to go to work.

It was a normal, very typical Thursday evening as Rosa Parks boarded the bus home from work for her usual 15 minutes commute. As always, she boarded in the colored section and sat in her designated area. Then the whites-only section began to fill up. When there were no more seats available, the driver instructed the four black people who took up the next two rows, including Parks, to get up so that a white man could have their seat. Everyone got up except her. See, this is how it usually worked. About ten front seats were always reserved for white people, and then ten back seats were reserved for black people. The middle section wasn't reserved for either, but white people had priority. So if more white people got on the bus and all the middle seats were filled, then black people in the middle seats would have to get up and stand.

Contrary to the way the story is often told, Rosa Parks was not asked directly to give up her seat for a white passenger. Instead, her entire row was cleared so that one white passenger could sit down. Parks thought about the racial injustices her family faced and about the tragic murder of Emmett Till just one year earlier, and she decided that she had had enough. She later wrote in her autobiography, my story, "People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. The only tired I was was tired of giving in."

After Parks was arrested and word spread, Joanne Robinson and the WPC immediately went to work. Partnering with community leaders had proved ineffective in the past, so they decided to call a one day boycott by themselves. Instead of going home that night, Robinson went to work at Alabama State, where she taught English. She stayed there all night, using the mimeograph machine to make leaflets announcing the boycott. Roughly 20 women then assembled to deliver them. And over the next four days, they distributed tens of thousands of leaflets through as many salons, barbershops, bars, and places of work that they could.

Robinson was determined to get this show on the row because, like many other community members, she felt like Parks' arrest was a moment where the boycott could finally take hold. But here, we also have to stop and ask ourselves why Rosa Parks became the person that many civil rights leaders wanted to rally around. I mean, she wasn't the first. That same year, two other women and Montgomery had already been arrested after refusing to give up their bus seats.

One of those people was Claudette Colvin, detained in March of 1955, who was a 15-year-old high school student at the time of her arrest. Even though her arrest happened before Parks, many believe that Ed Nixon and other civil rights leaders did not feel compelled to publicize her arrest because she was young, poor, and dark-skinned. Furthermore, after the arrests, she got pregnant, and with that, any chance she had at becoming the public face of the boycott was gone.

But Rosa Parks, these leaders believed, had the right background and the right look. And her history of activism with the NAACP that helped, too. She fit the profile of the type of person the civil rights movement wanted as its face. Born Rosa McAuley in 1913 and raised on her grandparents' farm in Alabama, Parks had to walk to school because at the time, Jim Crow laws prevented her from riding the school bus. Initially aspiring to be a nurse, Parks had to drop out of school in the 11th grade to take care of her ill grandmother. It wasn't until she married Raymond Parks in 1932 that she was ultimately able to go back and finish school. And with Raymond, she also began a life of activism. Parks eventually came to work for the NAACP and was appointed secretary in Montgomery.

Decades of work in activist circles had given Parks all the connection she needed for the community to come together at the time of her arrest and agree that she was the person. And this was the moment. At first, the WPC held a one day boycott, and it was a success. Feeling the momentum, they decided to keep it going. Those with cars carpooled and people contributed to what was virtually a 1950s uber system without the surge pricing. Those who walked rotated in groups so that no one had to walk alone and be subjected to violence. It was a community effort, and the community was all in. Local leaders elected a young 26-year-old preacher named Martin Luther King Junior to serve as the public face of the movement. With King as its president, they established the Montgomery Improvement Association, or MIA, to oversee the organization and maintain the boycott.

Joanne Robinson from the Women's Political Council chose not to take an official position within the MIA, but she was part of the executive board and edited the weekly newsletter. Together, the WPC and the MIA created and maintained a lean, mean boycotting machine. And one of the main reasons the boycott was successful is that black Americans made up most of the passengers on the bus, 75% in fact, and without black riders or black dollars, the city suffered financially.

On June 5, 1956, a Montgomery federal court ruled bus segregation a violation of the 14th Amendment. The town still tried to appeal to the US Supreme Court, but it upheld the lower court's decision on December 20, 1956, and on December 21, 1956, the buses were integrated and the boycott came to an end. Lasting for a total of 381 days, this movement was the culmination of a long struggle against discrimination in the public sphere.

It also served as a gateway to the extensive activism of the civil rights movement. But as successful as this boycott was, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. Like many black Americans who have stood up for equality at any point in time, boycotters face violence and intimidation tactics from surrounding white community. Boycotters faced the threat of losing their jobs, having to walk to work, increase their chances of being late, and some faced heckling and torment from white citizens.

Others had even more trying experiences. Doctor King and Ed Nixon's homes were both bombed just days apart in 1956. In February of that year, 89 members of the MIA were arrested under an old ordinance designed to prevent people from boycotting. King was tried, found guilty, and made to pay a $500 fine and $500 in court fees. By December, the KKK had taken to burning crosses in the yards of protesters and the bus yards.

This type of violence would become characteristic of the civil rights movement. Still, bus boycotts set a new precedent for nonviolent civil disobedience dedicated to upending Jim Crow, and as well soon see these activists were only just getting started.

Civil Rights Movement, History, Leadership, Inspiration, Education, Motivation, Crashcourse