The Montgomery Bus Boycott, Edited by Stewart Burns. Preface. (original) (raw)
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Daybreak of Freedom The Montgomery Bus Boycott Edited by Stewart Burns Copyright (c) 1997 by the University of North Carolina Press. All rights reserved. Preface . . . The Spirit of Montgomery The Montgomery bus boycott looms as a formative turning point of the twentieth century: harbinger of the African American freedom movement, which in turn inspired movements for freedom around the globe; springboard for the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr. in civil rights, human rights, and peacemaking; launching pad for the worldwide era of upheaval known as the "sixties," which lasted nearly two decades and dominated the rest of the century; marker of the midcentury divide between modern and postmodern. The bus boycott stands for all times as one of humankind's supreme democratic moments, a monumental struggle to actualize the American dream of freedom, equality, and constitutionalism. The nonviolent uprising of 1955 and 1956 represented a new founding of American democracy that pushed the nation a quantum leap closer to keeping faith with its parchment principles.The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution gave birth to the United States as a promise of freedom, something new in the eighteenth-century world. At that time American freedom meant independence from Great Britain and liberties for propertied Anglo-Saxon men. It remained an unfulfilled promise for nine out of ten inhabitants of the new world. African Americans, white women, wage workers fought to make their birthright real. They constructed a handle on freedom that they called "equal rights," a rallying cry that ascended from hush arbor and soap box, pulpit and tea table, penny press and fiery tract, to the Capitol and the White House.Abraham Lincoln crystallized the nation's second founding halfway through the holocaust of Civil War when he emancipated slaves and spoke the incantation of Gettysburg. The Gettysburg Address gathered the "full measure" of the war's death and devastation--hauntingly reflected by the awful battlefield backdrop--to illuminate and consecrate the watchword of equality that had been raised up for a generation by abolitionists black and white, transcendentalists, women's rights activists, and other disturbers of the peace. Just as the Declaration of Independence had been concretized by the Constitution, so Lincoln's linking of liberty and equality was incorporated in the three Civil War amendments that abolished slavery, gave citizenship and legal rights to African Americans, and enfranchised black men. But the unfolding of freedom was far from finished.For the freed people freedom and equal rights, even the very words, were twisted into new forms of enslavement and exploitation. The Jim Crow caste system of segregation, at first an expedient and then a whole culture and way of life, persisted for nearly a century, empowered by the systematic disempowerment of black men and women (and poor whites) by force, fraud, and reform. Black protests were sporadic, isolated, and short. Federal court decisions began undoing segregation slowly, in measured paces. Then in the mid-1950s a newly urban community of African Americans in the Alabama capital rose up to challenge Jim Crow. Organizing and mobilizing their people for over a year, black citizens dramatized in everyday life the popular sovereignty envisioned by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution's preamble. They injected the energy and spirit of democracy--living grassroots democracy--into their bittersweet inheritance of freedom and equality.The actions of Montgomery's black citizenry, along with the words leaders spoke from pulpits that ennobled and immortalized the mass protest, constituted the nation's third founding--the first in Philadelphia, the second at Gettysburg, the third in the "Cradle of the Confederacy." The Montgomery bus boycott made democracy tangible and heartfelt for those who took part in it and for wider circles swayed by its ripples--a shared communal awakening that commingled politics, emotion, and spirituality. Montgomery's democratic moment was its own, unique, unrepeatable, and far from flawless, but its vital elements took hold as standards for the epic black freedom movement that grew from it--and to some degree in later struggles for liberation, from South Africa to Prague to Tienanmen Square.Montgomery showed that democracy cannot bloom without community. The richer the communal soil, the stronger its democratic shoots. The bus boycott exemplified an unparalleled unity across class lines that black movements have dreamt about since. The driving force of it all was thousands of African American women, middle class and working class, active in churches, clubs, and sororities. They transplanted democracy from their sheltered sanctuaries to public streets and squares. They turned faith and friendship from the healing balm of survival into the fire of defiance and transformation.Blocked from voting by and large, lacking representation in the political arena, Montgomery's black citizens understood that, like their nineteenth-century forebears who fought slavery, democracy meant that they "must themselves strike the blow." They must act as their own agents of change. They came to believe, as their preeminent leader told them, that "the great glory of democracy is the right to protest for right." Just as they and their ancestors had tilled hard soil, planted seeds, harvested crops, hewn wood, repaired tools, cooked food, sewn clothes--for whites but also for themselves--so democracy, they found, was something palpable to hold and mold in their own hands, to carry forward step by step. Democracy too had its seasons and cycles. The journey mattered. Democracy was more than a right, more than a responsibility. It was a pantheon of hope and faith.These citizens' reach for democracy was rooted in the churches, scriptures, and spirituals that tied them to their divinity and to generations past and not yet born. They made Montgomery a praying movement, a testament to their faith in God and, through God, faith in themselves. A testament to God's grace.Their Bibles and preachers taught them that they were God's chosen people like the children of Israel. The bus boycott consummated this faith, made it surge alive in mass meetings, car pools, and weary soulful walking. Every day they were moving toward the Promised Land. The mass church-based protest exalted them as makers of history, bearers of God's will. The sense of divine mission catapulted their self-esteem, their dignity, their collective self-confidence. They believed that they were building, through toil, sacrifice, and sharing, a "new Jerusalem" in Montgomery and "a new heaven and a new earth" in the dispirited South. In this land of fulfilled promises, justice would "roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Every person would be revealed as a child of God.Black people of Montgomery believed that they were breaking a new day. Chapter 1 . . . Prelude For a generation, Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, and other lawyers for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had pursued litigation through federal courts challenging racial segregation. Precedent upon precedent, the NAACP legal juggernaut won a succession of court battles in the 1940s that advanced black voting rights and desegregation of public postgraduate education. The NAACP legal reform strategy culminated in the Brown v. Board of Education decision of May 17, 1954, declaring public school segregation unconstitutional.Four days after the unanimous Supreme Court ruling, an English professor at Alabama State College in Montgomery wrote a letter to the mayor urging him to accept minor reforms to improve the treatment of black passengers on the city's segregated buses. Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, president of the Women's Political Council, warned him that a number of black organizations were considering a boycott of buses if changes were not made. She had been directly lobbying the city commissioners to remedy bus inequities since she became head of the WPC four years before. Although she claimed to oppose such "forceful measures" as a bus boycott, she was a lightning rod for the community's rising sentiment for direct action. Indeed, that spring her own students at all-black Alabama State, including seventeen-year-old freshman Richard Nelson, had started their own bus boycott. Students had thrown bricks and bottles at buses and physically removed riders. According to Nelson, she had tried to discourage them from boycotting.[1]May 21, 1954Honorable Mayor W. A. GayleCity HallMontgomery, AlabamaDear Sir:The Women's Political Council is very grateful to you and the City Commissioners for the hearing you allowed our representative during the month of March, 1954, when the "city-bus-fare-increase case" was being reviewed. There were several things the Council asked for:1. A city law that would make it possible for Negroes to sit from back toward front, and whites from front toward back until all the seats are taken.2. That Negroes not be asked or forced to pay fare at front and go to the rear of the bus to enter.3. That busses stop at every corner in residential sections occupied by Negroes as they do in communities where whites reside.We are happy to report that busses have begun stopping at more corners now in some sections where Negroes live than previously. However, the same practices in seating and boarding the bus continue.Mayor Gayle, three-fourths of the riders of these public conveyances are Negroes. If Negroes did not patronize them, they could not possibly operate.More and more of our people are already arranging with neighbors and friends to ride to keep from being insulted and humiliated by bus drivers.There has been talk from twenty-five or more local organizations of planning a city-wide boycott of busses. We, sir, do not feel that forceful measures are necessary in bargaining for a convenience which is right for all bus passengers. We, the Council, believe that when this matter has been put before you and the Commissioners, that agreeable terms can be met in a quiet and unostensible manner to the satisfaction of all concerned.Many of our Southern cities in neighboring states have practiced the policies we seek without incident whatsoever. Atlanta, Macon and Savannah in Georgia have done this for years. Even Mobile, in our own state, does this and all the passengers are satisfied.Please consider this plea, and if possible, act favorably upon it, for even now plans are being made to ride less, or not at all, on our busses. We do not want this.Respectfully yours,The Women's Political CouncilJo Ann Robinson, PresidentMCDA-AMC.1. "ASU Student Left Buses before Parks," Montgomery Advertiser, December 1, 1995; editor's interview with Richard Nelson, December 4, 1995, Montgomery, Ala.Two years later, in the March 1956 conspiracy trial of Martin Luther King Jr., bus passengers testified under oath in Montgomery Circuit Court about their past mistreatment by white bus drivers and how they had challenged it in different ways.Thelma Glass, a geography professor at Alabama State College, testified about activities of the Women's Political Council in regard to the bus situation and other issues of concern to black Montgomery.[1]Thelma Glass, having been duly sworn, was examined and testified as follows:DEFENSE LAWYER: State your name to the Court.THELMA GLASS: Thelma Williams Glass.DEFENSE: Do you live in Montgomery?GLASS: Yes, I do.DEFENSE: How long have you lived in Montgomery?GLASS: Since 1947. Just recently I have been working around the college at Montgomery.DEFENSE: Are you a member of the Women's Political Council?GLASS: I am.DEFENSE: Do you know when that council was first organized?GLASS: Yes, I do. The Women's Political Council was organized in the spring of 1949.DEFENSE: For what purpose or purposes was this council organized?GLASS: Well, maybe the best overall purpose, I could say, would be to promote good citizenship. We have maybe one or two specific activities we have always listed in our prospectus under citizenship.DEFENSE: What are those activities?GLASS: The Women's Political Council naturally is concerned with women's activities. In the first place, we enter into political and civic problems, particularly those relating to Negroes. In the second place, we encourage women to become registered voters, to pay poll tax and vote. In the third place, to enter those women in a better national government as a result. Most activities are proposed and designed to acquaint women with current problems.DEFENSE: As a member of this group, have they had any connection with the Montgomery bus situation?GLASS: Well, that is one of our specific problems, particularly as relating to Negroes, and one of our current civic problems. Problems relating to the busses have recently been part of our program.DEFENSE: What were some of those problems your group has considered?PROSECUTOR: We object to what the group considered, what it did or didn't.JUDGE: If it has to do with busses it would be admissible. What they considered wouldn't be.DEFENSE: What particular problem has your organization taken up with the bus company, if any?GLASS: We have been trying for the past six years, we have had various committees from the Women's Political Council who have made appeals to the City Commissioners. The things particularly that we had asked for--maybe there are four specific things as I can remember that we did send committees to ask for specifically.DEFENSE: What are those things?GLASS: Well, the very first thing we objected to mainly was Negroes have had to stand over empty seats.PROSECUTOR: We object.JUDGE: Testify to what you took up with the City Commission, what you told them. That would be admissible.DEFENSE: Had this group had a meeting with the City officials of Montgomery?GLASS: Oh, yes, sir, it has numerous meetings.DEFENSE: You have called on the bus company?GLASS: We have.DEFENSE: Will you tell the court what happened?PROSECUTOR: We object to that unless it is shown the time, the date it happened and where.GLASS: In November, 1953, a committee from the Women's Political Council actually asked for seven specific things, I think. Not all pertaining to the busses, but I can tell you about six of the things.PROSECUTOR: We object to anything unless it pertains to the busses.JUDGE: Objection sustained.GLASS: Negroes had to stand over empty seats when no whites were riding; requesting them not to occupy those seats where they are unoccupied; Negroes pay fares at the front door, get off and go to the rear door to board the bus; when fares are paid at the front passengers should get on at the front; there is a danger of a passenger being struck without the driver knowing it; and there have been instances where persons have paid their fares and the bus has driven off and left them standing; busses stop in sections occupied by white at every corner, but in sections occupied by Negroes they stop at every other block; since all pay the same fare the busses should stop at every corner in all communities. Those are the specific things that this committee asked for in November of 1953 that deal with busses.DEFENSE: Have you had any other meetings with the City Commissioners on the bus situation?GLASS: On the bus situation we have.DEFENSE: Do you remember the dates?GLASS: This meeting in March of 1954, the Women's Political Council, along with a large labor group, the Federation of Women's Clubs, the Citizens' Steering Committee, the Progressive Democrats, along with representatives of the Women's Political Council.DEFENSE: Did you attend this particular meeting?GLASS: This particular meeting in March, 1954, I did.PROSECUTOR: We move to strike all that testimony.JUDGE: If you were not there you wouldn't know what happened, you couldn't testify to that. Where you were present, you could.DEFENSE: Will you testify as to what happened at this particular meeting in 1954?GLASS: Well, we went before the Commission with a full program we later on developed with a re-statement of some of the same things the committee had worked on in November of 1953.DEFENSE: Was that the Montgomery City Commission?GLASS: That is the Montgomery City Commission. The usual seating arrangement, people were still complaining of standing over empty seats; let Negroes board the busses at the front where they paid their fares; many had been left on the sidewalk after paying their fares; busses should stop at every corner; people had to walk, and they had a right complaining, and names and dates, and names of busses, the bus lines, and specific experiences with Negroes, were turned over to the Commission from people who complained against the bus company. [. . .]Georgia Gilmore, having been duly sworn, was examined and testified as follows: [. . .]DEFENSE: How long have you been a resident of the City of Montgomery?GEORGIA GILMORE: I don't know how long. I came here in 1920.DEFENSE: During the time you have resided in the City of Montgomery, have you had opportunity to ride the busses owned by the Montgomery Bus Line?GILMORE: Yes, sir, I have. At that time I did all my riding on the busses. They were my sole transportation because I didn't own any car or motor vehicle whatsoever.DEFENSE: I believe you stated you did all your riding?GILMORE: Did all my riding.DEFENSE: When did you stop riding the busses?GILMORE: October of 1955.DEFENSE: For what purpose did you cease riding the busses?GILMORE: The last of October, 1955, on a Friday afternoon between the hours of three and five o'clock I was on the corner of Court and Montgomery Street, and I usually rode Oak Park or South Jackson busses for both of them came up to that corner. This particular Oak Park bus came up to the corner. I don't know the driver's name. I would know him if I saw him. He is tall and has red skin. This bus driver is tall, hair red, and has freckles, and wears glasses. He is a very nasty bus driver. This particular time the bus was pretty near full of colored people, only two white people on the bus. I put my money in the cash box and then he told me to get off. He shouted I had to get on in back. I told him I was already on the bus and I couldn't see why I had to get off. A lot of colored people were in the middle aisle almost half way to the front, couldn't he let me stand there? Other people were down there, colored, not white passengers. He said, "I told you to get off and go around and get in the back door." I have a rather high temper and I figured, I have never been in any trouble whatsoever in my life. I was always taught that two wrongs don't make a right.PROSECUTOR: We object to this.JUDGE: All right.GILMORE: I am just telling you. So I got off the front door and went around the side of the bus to get in the back door, and when I reached the back door and was about to get on he shut the back door and pulled off, and I didn't even ride the bus after paying my fare. So I decided right then and there I wasn't going to ride the busses any more, because of what happened in there. I was upset within myself, for I was so aggravated with the driver I didn't want to raise any fuss. And so I haven't missed the busses because I really don't have to ride them. The taxi takes me in the morning--I haven't returned to the busses--I walk, just to get a taxi in the morning and walk home. My children going to school--PROSECUTOR: We object to what her children do.DEFENSE: You are a member of the Negro race, are you?GILMORE: I am.DEFENSE: Believe you said the bus driver was nasty to you?GILMORE: He was.DEFENSE: What do you mean by the fact he was nasty to you?GILMORE: Well, I didn't mean going around to the back door. What he said: "Nigger, get out that door and go around to the back door." I resented his tone because I had already paid my fare. When I paid my fare and they got the money they don't know Negro money from white money.DEFENSE: Have you had any other unpleasant experiences riding busses prior to October?GILMORE: Yes, sir, various. Many times I have been standing without any white people on the bus and have taken seats, and when the driver sees you he says, "You have to move because those seats aren't for you Negroes."DEFENSE: During your experience riding busses in the City of Montgomery have you observed other bus drivers that have mistreated Negro passengers?GILMORE: Lots of times I have seen people mistreated positively for nothing.DEFENSE: What type of treatment have you generally received from these bus drivers? Have you ever heard any Negroes at all call the drivers any names? GILMORE: No, never have.DEFENSE: Have you heard the drivers call the Negroes any names?GILMORE: I have.DEFENSE: What are some names you heard?GILMORE: "Black bastard," and "Back up, nigger, you ain't got no damn business up here, get back where you belong."DEFENSE: You say this happened frequently?GILMORE: Lots of times, because at that time I rode the bus daily.DEFENSE: Can you give the name of another Negro citizen you observed being mistreated by them?GILMORE: I cannot remember the names of anybody else except my mother, and she is deceased now.DEFENSE: What happened in her case?PROSECUTOR: We object unless she was present.DEFENSE: Were you present?GILMORE: Yes, sir, I was.DEFENSE: What happened in her case?GILMORE: She was an old person and it was hard for her to get in and out of the bus except the front door. The bus was crowded that evening with everybody coming home from work. She went to the front door to get on the bus, and this bus driver was mean and surly, and when she asked him if she could get in the front door he said she would have to go around and get in the back door, and she said she couldn't get in, the steps were too high. He said she couldn't go in the front door. He said: "You damn niggers are all alike. You don't want to do what you are told. If I had my way I would kill off every nigger person." And she always said, "You cannot ride, you are riding among maniacs," and she said--PROSECUTOR: We object to what she said.JUDGE: Sustain the objection.GILMORE: Makes me mad to think about it. [. . .]Martha K. Walker, having been duly sworn, was examined and testified as follows:DEFENSE: During the time you were riding these busses did you have any unpleasant experiences with the bus driver?MARTHA WALKER: Many of them.DEFENSE: Do you recall specifically the last unpleasant experience?WALKER: Yes, sir, I do recall.DEFENSE: When was that?WALKER: It was 1955.DEFENSE: Tell us about that and when.WALKER: Before Thanksgiving of 1955, I went out to get the bus on North Ripley Street, coming to town. I guess about four busses passed me up with about five or six colored people in the back. They had plenty of room up front to have gotten on them and sit back there on all of them. I had my husband with me, of course. He is blind and I was taking him down to the Veterans' Administration this particular day. So it took so long to get a bus, although the bus situation out that way is bad anyway. So I turned around and went back in my apartment and called the manager of the bus company. I got him on the phone, so I told him we had been passed up by four busses, and the fifth bus stopped and we got on the bus and rode to town. They had plenty of room in the front to sit in the back. We sat behind the back door on the little short seat there to the right.DEFENSE: How far was that seat from the rear of the bus? How many seats between the seat in which you sat and the back of the bus?WALKER: One long seat and the side.DEFENSE: So you were just one seat from the rear of the bus?WALKER: That is right.DEFENSE: You were not in the middle, were you?WALKER: No.DEFENSE: You were not in the front of the bus?WALKER: That is right.DEFENSE: Go right ahead and tell us.WALKER: He said when we got to Decatur Street and Columbus Street there, we had to get up, a couple of white girls got on the bus. And at that time my husband was blind. His condition is better now, but he is sightless though. And we still sat there. And that bus had two sets of empty seats, the front part was filled except two empties. And I was looking up toward the mirror and watching him because I was expecting some unruly words. He stopped. After he went another block he stopped. I think it was, I guess, in another block, in another street going up to Robinson's Corner Market, in that block, and I was still in a nervous strain there, and he looked back again, and then he pulled off and stopped within, you know, the middle of the block, and said, "Don't you niggers see that empty seat behind you?" I said, "Yes, I see it." He said, "Well, get up and get on back there." Well, that just tore my husband. We got up and got off the bus. Now, that is true, that experience.DEFENSE: How far were you when you got off the bus, how far were you from your destination?WALKER: It was near a feed store down there. I believe they call it the Alabama Feed Store, if I am not mistaken. We walked from there to the Veterans' Administration with me leading him. [. . .]DEFENSE: Have you had other unpleasant experiences with the bus drivers or bus company?WALKER: Yes, I have.DEFENSE: Do you recall any specific incidence?WALKER: Yes, I do.DEFENSE: Will you tell us when it was and where it was?WALKER: In 1954.DEFENSE: Where was this?WALKER: In Montgomery.DEFENSE: On which line, which bus line?WALKER: Maxwell Field bus line.DEFENSE: Go ahead, tell us about that.WALKER: My husband was coming back home again from the Veterans' hospital, from the Tuskegee Hospital, and he had his sight taken from him in Germany--PROSECUTOR: We object to all these preliminaries. They wouldn't have anything to do with this specific incidence.JUDGE: Yes. She said she was with him and he was blind. Tell what happened on the bus.WALKER: Well, we were on this bus, we boarded the bus down town and our destination was to get off at Dickerson and Clay Street, we were living on Clay, and it was about 3:30 in the afternoon, and we pulled the cord. Different times I had to pull it to stop before it stopped. We pulled the cord in time for him to get stopped, and by the time he stopped, I thought he must have been stopping, I got ready to get my husband off the bus. Now, he noticed me when I left the bus, I was leading my husband. And when I got ready to get off he slowed down, he didn't stop, he slowed up. When he slowed up, I stepped down on the side of the step there, and he opened the door. I got out, ready for my husband to step down, and just as my husband put his left foot down, the driver started on out with his right foot still on the bus, and I screamed, and a white lady was in there and she said to wait a moment. Well, finally I jiggled his foot free, he couldn't get loose by himself, and with me helping him he did, and he got his foot out. I ran in a store at the corner of Dickerson and Clay and said--I was crying--I said, "I just had some trouble with a bus operator."PROSECUTOR: We object to any hearsay testimony.JUDGE: Objection sustained.WALKER: I have to give that.PROSECUTOR: Don't testify about that.JUDGE: Tell what you know yourself.WALKER: Anyway, I know it broke the skin on his right ankle.DEFENSE: What did you do in that store, did you do something there?WALKER: I got the manager of the bus company's name from the white lady that runs the store.DEFENSE: What else did you do?WALKER: When I left there I left my husband standing over there by her building and crossed the street on the other side. When the bus came back coming toward town, I knew, I recognized the bus. I waited for him. When he came back I stopped him. I said, "Look yourself what you just done to my husband." He said, "I don't remember seeing you niggers on the bus."DEFENSE: I believe you said he used the word "niggers"?WALKER: Yes.DEFENSE: Spell that word for us.WALKER: N-i-g-g-e-r-s, niggers.DEFENSE: Go ahead.WALKER: I said, "My husband and I got off that bus there." And I said, "He caught his foot in the door and broke the skin here on his ankle." He said, "I didn't do no such damn thing." That is the way he worded it. I said, "He is over there on the corner to prove it." I said, "If you cannot give me any consideration," I said, "I am afraid I will have to take further steps." It didn't do any good, of course.DEFENSE: Did you report the accident to the bus company?WALKER: I certainly did.DEFENSE: Did you hear from them?WALKER: They promised me I would, but I never did. [. . .]Stella Brooks, having been duly sworn, was examined and testified as follows:DEFENSE: I believe your name is Stella Brooks?STELLA BROOKS: Estella Brooks.DEFENSE: What is your address?BROOKS: 633 Cleveland Avenue.DEFENSE: That is located in the City of Montgomery?BROOKS: That is right.DEFENSE: How long have you been living there?BROOKS: Two years.DEFENSE: How long have you been a resident of the City of Montgomery?BROOKS: All my life.DEFENSE: You are over the age of twenty-one, are you not?BROOKS: Twenty-six.DEFENSE: You are also a member of the Negro race, are you not?BROOKS: That is right.DEFENSE: I ask you during your lifetime in the City of Montgomery whether or not you have had occasions to ride these busses in the City, operated by the Montgomery City Lines?BROOKS: Yes, I have.DEFENSE: Do you ride these busses frequently, or just sometime, or what manner?BROOKS: I haven't rode the busses since they killed my husband, since 1950.DEFENSE: What month?BROOKS: 12th of August.DEFENSE: For what reason did you stop riding the busses?BROOKS: Because the bus driver was the cause of my husband's death.PROSECUTOR: We object to that.JUDGE: Tell what happened.DEFENSE: Tell the Court what happened that caused you to stop riding the busses.BROOKS: He just got on before the bus driver told him, the bus was crowded, he asked for his dime back and he wouldn't give his dime back.DEFENSE: What happened then?BROOKS: The police killed him.DEFENSE: Did the bus driver call the police?BROOKS: The bus driver called the police and the police came up and shot him.DEFENSE: And shot him?BROOKS: Yes, sir. [. . .]Henrietta Brinson, having been duly sworn, was examined and testified as follows: [. . .]DEFENSE: How long have you been a resident and citizen of Montgomery, Alabama?HENRIETTA BRINSON: Ever since I married.DEFENSE: During the time you have lived in Montgomery I presume you had occasion to ride the busses?BRINSON: Yes, sir.DEFENSE: Of Montgomery City Lines?BRINSON: Yes, sir, I have.DEFENSE: When was the last time you rode the busses?BRINSON: I rode December the 4th.DEFENSE: December the 4th, 1955?BRINSON: That is right.DEFENSE: Were you a frequent rider or just rode occasionally?BRINSON: I rode all the time. I used to ride the trolley before the busses--twice a day. I ride in the morning and ride in the afternoon. I got two places I got to go a day.DEFENSE: During the last ten years did you encounter unpleasant experiences with some or all of the bus drivers?BRINSON: Oh, yes, I have.DEFENSE: Will you relate the time and place of your first experience that you had?BRINSON: I cannot tell you. I remember the time, but I don't know the date.DEFENSE: Your best judgment?BRINSON: It was 1953.DEFENSE: What happened?BRINSON: I ride the Court Street bus, and when I would go to get on the Court Street bus you had to push to get on the bus on account of the school children, so many white children going to Lanier School. I wasn't able to get in unless I pushed to get in with the white children. So I started in with the white children and left my transfer at the door and went on back and stood up in the aisle of the bus. And he stood up and said, "Who gave me this old transfer?" I cannot tell you the awful name he called me. He is the meanest man I ever saw in my life. I don't know his name, but I rode that bus all the time, and I rode to work in South Cloverdale. And why he had such a nasty way with the colored, I just don't know. He looked at me and said, "You gave me that transfer, I saw you give me that transfer." I said, "You just laid that transfer on top of the other transfers," and I said, "There it is." (Indicating) He said, "Who are you talking to?" I said, "I am talking to you. Every time I catch the South Cloverdale I always have to worry with you about something. I don't see why you always keep on griping about something. The other bus driver that carries me on the South Cloverdale bus, you don't have no trouble with him." So he looked at me like that and said, "Who do you think you are talking to? You are just getting off this bus, all you niggers behaving like a parcel of cows." I said, "Well, that is all right. Just as long as I get to work." And that is what I did. We have had a lot of trouble with bus drivers because they are all working together and they don't want to treat us the right way.DEFENSE: Can you relate another circumstance and, if so, give us the time and place?BRINSON: I cannot give you any time.DEFENSE: Your best judgment?BRINSON: I was on Day Street one afternoon coming in from work, and this bus came from Highland Avenue.DEFENSE: When was this?BRINSON: This was year before last now.DEFENSE: 1953?BRINSON: Yes, sir, that is right. I got on at Dexter. And when I got on at Dexter, well, I stood by the door, in front of the window, it was really hot, and I felt really bad that day, the day being hot and I was tired, I had worked two places. And I was standing up on the side as you come in the back door, I stood right there, I stood up in the back on this other side just as you enter into the door, and this white couple was sitting there until the bus got to the Square and they got off. And standing up I began to feel so bad so I sat down and hoisted the window. When I hoisted the window he looked at me, but I didn't look up. I just looked out the window. He said, "You, I am talking to you." So I had to look up. Finally I went on back, and he said, "I am talking to you, all you niggers know we got a law in Alabama." And this is what I would like to know, when they charge us dimes on the busses--PROSECUTOR: We object to any argumental part by the witness.BRINSON: Can I speak?JUDGE: Just a moment. You are supposed to answer any question. Don't give us any discourse. Just answer any question.BRINSON: Because we all feel we need the busses.JUDGE: Just a moment. We are not going to hear any sermon from you. You are here as a witness. Just answer the question.BRINSON: I believe you all feel like we ought to work together. Don't you want to hear what I have to say?JUDGE: No.DEFENSE: Just answer any question. You had numerous experiences?BRINSON: Correct, I had. And I am just fed up with these bus drivers. I am just fed up to my neck.JUDGE: Do you understand you are on the witness stand now and I have told you to answer the questions that are asked you. I will tell you what I can do if you won't do that.BRINSON: All right.DEFENSE: Don't volunteer any information. Answer the questions I am asking you.BRINSON: All right.DEFENSE: You have had numerous incidences, have you not?BRINSON: Yes, I have.DEFENSE: And you have observed other people have numerous incidences?BRINSON: Yes, sir.DEFENSE: Unpleasant experiences with bus drivers?BRINSON: Sure, I have. [. . .]Gladys Moore, having been duly sworn, was examined and testified as follows:DEFENSE: Have you been on that bus during the ten years in which you rode the busses here in Montgomery when all of the Negro seats in back were crowded and you were standing up with empty seats in the front?GLADYS MOORE: I have been on that bus.DEFENSE: Were you ever at any time during that time allowed in those seats that were empty?MOORE: Not any time.DEFENSE: Did you all move when you were asked to move?MOORE: Well, sometimes I don't think they could because they didn't have enough room, and the bus drivers wouldn't know anything about it unless you told them.DEFENSE: Have you ever seen anybody or heard anybody complain at any time?MOORE: No, I haven't because you are toward the rear of the bus and when the driver tells you to move you look the other way.DEFENSE: How were you treated by the bus drivers on these two lines? Were you treated courteously? How were you treated generally?MOORE: No, not courteously.DEFENSE: Just tell us how you were treated.MOORE: Just as rough as could be. I mean not like we are human, but like we was some kind of animal.DEFENSE: The general manner was discourteous?MOORE: That is right.DEFENSE: During the whole course of those ten years?MOORE: Yes, sir. Some drivers wasn't.DEFENSE: Some of them?MOORE: Some weren't as bad as others.DEFENSE: Were not all bad?MOORE: They wasn't good.DEFENSE: Did they call Negroes names?MOORE: Well, coming home on the bus, just getting on the Highland Avenue bus, and the driver--I don't know his name now--he said, "Don't you upset me with the racket." I stood still. There wasn't any disorder in the back of the bus whatever. And he said, "You niggers there."DEFENSE: Will you state the whole thing you heard him say, begin at the beginning, tell what he said.MOORE: He stopped the bus and looked back, they was just all regularly talking, and he said, "You niggers, come on and get your fare and get off." I guess he gave the fare to some. Because I wanted to get home I stayed on the bus.DEFENSE: Will you spell that word he used for me?MOORE: (spelling) N-i-g-g-e-r-s.PROSECUTOR: We object to this testimony and move to exclude it until we know the time and place.MOORE: She was indicating her experience.JUDGE: About when was it, in your best judgment? What month was it, what year it was?MOORE: This was about 1950. It has been a good long while.DEFENSE: Have you had any other unpleasant experiences on either of these lines?PROSECUTOR: We object unless we know the time.JUDGE: Ask her to fix the time.DEFENSE: Have you had any other unpleasant experiences while riding on any of these bus lines?MOORE: I have.DEFENSE: Can you tell us what routes and approximately when they happened?MOORE: I could tell you what happened in 1952.DEFENSE: Where?MOORE: On a South Jackson bus going out.DEFENSE: Tell us about it.MOORE: This bus was the South Jackson bus going out, when I boarded it in town and rode that bus out. On the corner of South Jackson and Adams Street, the bus driver closed the door on my foot getting off the bus. And I had on a coat, it was a heavy coat, and landed on the highway. It throwed me clean off the bus when the door caught my foot. He said, "The next time you catch your foot I ought to drag you all the way up South Jackson Hill." He didn't wait long enough to see whether I am hurt, or not. I didn't report the injury because I didn't think it would do any good.JUDGE: Why did you stop riding the busses on December the 5th?MOORE: Why did I stop?JUDGE: Yes.MOORE: Well, no one told me to stop riding the busses.JUDGE: I didn't ask you that.MOORE: I am going to explain it to you. I didn't have anything to do with it.JUDGE: I didn't ask you that.MOORE: What is it you want me to answer?JUDGE: I asked you why you stopped on December the 5th. I want to know for my own information why did you stop riding on December 5th?MOORE: I stopped because we had been treated so bad down through the years that we decided we wouldn't ride the busses no more.JUDGE: Who do you mean by "we"?MOORE: All the fifty thousand Negroes in Montgomery.JUDGE: When did you all decide?MOORE: Well, after so many things happened. Wasn't no one man started it. We all started it overnight.JUDGE: Where did you all decide it? You said you all decided it.MOORE: Well, after that accident happened to Mrs. Parks, we all knowed it was unfair, and after they treated her like they did. So we just had an inward feeling, we just quit riding the busses.JUDGE: Where did you all meet to decide that?MOORE: We didn't meet nowhere to decide that.JUDGE: Do you mean to tell the Court there was no meeting in which you decided? When did you decide to quit riding the buses, was it decided on December the 5th, the night of December the 5th?MOORE: It wasn't decided that night. It came out in the paper. The bus company announced it in the paper that we stopped riding the busses.JUDGE: Did it come out in the paper before December 5th or after December 5th?MOORE: It came out before.JUDGE: That you were not going to ride on December the 5th?MOORE: That is right.JUDGE: And that is what stopped you?MOORE: No, not exactly. What stopped me was--JUDGE: When did you make up your mind? That is what I am asking you. When did you make up your mind not to ride any more, since December the 5th?MOORE: Because Mrs. Parks was mistreated on the bus, that is why.JUDGE: You haven't answered my question. Why did you decide particularly on December the 5th, not December 6th or December 1st, or any other time?MOORE: Mrs. Parks was riding the bus and we didn't think she was treated fairly, that is why. She wasn't justly treated.JUDGE: You still haven't answered my question. Why you decided on December the 5th. That is what I was asking.MOORE: I think I answered that clear enough.JUDGE: What caused you to stop riding? Why did you decide not to do so on December 5th, that particular date?DEFENSE: I think the witness has given an answer in reference to the question. I think her answers relate to the question. I think she said why.JUDGE: She has given her reason for it. The only date I have asked her about particularly was December the 5th.DEFENSE: I think she has answered it.JUDGE: I don't think so.MOORE: I think I have answered it in as clear words as I can.JUDGE: I want you to tell me why you picked this particular date, December the 5th. You told me why you quit riding. Why December the 5th?MOORE: Because that is the day of this Mrs. Parks' trial, and after they mistreated her the way they did and fined her. We didn't think she was guilty of what they accused her of. That is why we quit riding the busses. Is that clear enough?JUDGE: That is clear enough. [. . .] CMCR-AMC. State of Alabama v. M. L. King, Jr., March 19-22, 1956. On May 11, 1956, Claudette Colvin, one of four plaintiffs in the Browder v. Gayle lawsuit challenging bus segregation, testified in a Montgomery federal court hearing about her refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger in March 1955. She was then a fifteen-year-old junior at Booker T. Washington High School. "I thought segregation was horrible," Colvin later recalled. "My first anger I remember was when I wanted to go to the rodeo. Daddy bought my sister boots and bought us both cowboy hats. That's as much of the rodeo as we got. The show was at the Coliseum, and it was only for white kids. I was nine or ten."You could buy dry goods at the five-and-ten-cent stores, Kress's, H. L. Green, J. J. Newberry's," she continued, "but you couldn't sit down and eat there. When I realized that, I was really angry." Her mind "got pricked" by a ninth-grade history teacher, who impressed on her the importance of self-worth. Colvin wrote a class essay complaining about the indignities of segregation, especially for a teenage girl out shopping for clothes. She refused to straighten her hair, wearing it in little "kinky" braids--even though her friends ridiculed her and her boyfriend broke up with her. She wore her braids "until I proved to them that I wasn't crazy."[2]Claudette Colvin, called as a witness, being duly sworn, testified as follows:FRED GRAY, COUNSEL FOR PLAINTIFFS: State your name?CLAUDETTE COLVIN: Claudette Colvin.GRAY: What is your address, Miss Colvin?COLVIN: 658 Dixie Drive.GRAY: How old are you?COLVIN: Sixteen.GRAY: Who are your parents?COLVIN: C. P. Colvin and Mary Ann Colvin.GRAY: You are one of the plaintiffs in this lawsuit?COLVIN: Yes.GRAY: Prior to December 5, 1955, last year, did you ride the City Buses?COLVIN: Yes.GRAY: How often did you ride?COLVIN: Twice a day.GRAY: Have you rode the busses since then?COLVIN: No.GRAY: Did you have an incident at any time while you were riding the buses?COLVIN: Yes.GRAY: When did this occur?COLVIN: March 2, 1955.GRAY: What bus did you ride?COLVIN: Highland Gardens.GRAY: About what time was it?COLVIN: About 2:30 p.m..GRAY: Where were you on the way to?COLVIN: I was going home from school.GRAY: Will you please tell the Court exactly what happened on March 2, 1955?COLVIN: I rode the bus and it was turning in on Perry and Dexter Avenue, and me and some other school children, I sit on the seat on the left hand side, on the seat just above the emergency door, me and another girl beside me.GRAY: You say another girl was sitting by you and another girl was sitting across from you, do you mean those two girls were Negroes?COLVIN: Yes, sir. And he drove on down to the next block, and by the time all the people got in there, he seen there were no more vacant seats. He asked us to get up, and the big girl got up but I didn't. So he drove on down into the Square, and some more people boarded the bus. So, Mrs. Hamilton, she got on the bus, and she sat down beside me, and that leaves the other seat vacant.GRAY: You mean that from across the aisle the other two girls had gotten up when the bus driver requested them to?COLVIN: Yes, sir. So he looked back through the window and he saw us, and he was surprised to see she [_Hamilton_] was sitting down, too. He asked her to get up then and he asked both of us to get up. She said she was not going to get up, she didn't feel like it. He drove on down to the next corner or block, rather. And he got up and asked us to get up. So, he directly asked me to get up first. So I told him I was not going to get up. He said, "If you are not going to get up I will get a policeman." So, he went somewhere and got a policeman. He [_policeman_] said, "Why are you not going to get up?" He said, "It is against the law here." So I told him that I didn't know that it was a law that a colored person had to get up and give a white person a seat when there were not any more vacant seats and colored people were standing up. I said I was just as good as any white person and I wasn't going to get up. So he got off. And then two more policemen came in. He said, "Who is it?" And he was very angry about it. He said: "That is not new, I had trouble out of that thing before." So, he said: "Aren't you going to get up?" He didn't say anything to Mrs. Hamilton then. He just said it to me. He said: "Aren't you going to get up?" I said, "no." He saw Mrs. Hamilton but he was afraid to ask her to get up. He said, "If any of you are not gentlemen enough to give a lady a seat you should be put in jail, yourself." So, Mr. Harris, he got up and gave her a seat, and immediately got off the bus. He said, "You can have that seat, I am getting off." And so she taken his seat. So he asked me, if I was not going to get up. I said, "No, sir." I was crying then, I was very hurt because I didn't know that white people would act like that and I was crying. And he said, "I will have to take you off." So I didn't move. I didn't move at all. I just acted like a big baby. So he kicked me and one got on one side of me and one got the other arm and they just drug me out. And so I was very pitiful. It really hurt me to see that I have to give a person a seat, when all those colored people were standing and there were not any more vacant seats. I had never seen nothing like that. Well, they take me down, they put me in a car and one of the motorcycle men, he says, "I am sorry to have to take you down like this." So they put handcuffs on me through the window.GRAY: After that where did they take you?COLVIN: They taken me to the City Hall.GRAY: While you were at the City Hall, did anyone ask your age?COLVIN: Yes, they asked my age and everything.GRAY: Where did you go from the City Hall?COLVIN: I went to the City Jail.GRAY: Did they mention anything to you about taking you to the Detention Home? the Juvenile Court instead of the City Jail?COLVIN: Yes, sir. One of the policemen.GRAY: So they took you to the City Jail?COLVIN: Yes, sir.GRAY: How long were you there?COLVIN: It was over an hour.GRAY: What happened when you got to the City Jail?COLVIN: Well, all the people were staring at me, and asked me what was wrong. One of the policemen said, "She didn't want to sit back there with the Negroes!" And so he said: "If any more of them act like that--she was the only one that didn't want to move back." So they put me in the cell and locked the door.GRAY: And you stayed there until your parents came and made bond?COLVIN: Yes, sir.GRAY: What were you charged with?COLVIN: I was charged with violating the City Code, or certain sections of the City Code.GRAY: You were convicted?COLVIN: Yes, I was.WALTER KNABE, COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANTS: You have changed, that is, you and the other Negroes have changed your ideas since December 5, have you not?COLVIN: No, sir. We haven't changed our ideas. It has been in me ever since I was born.KNABE: But, the group stopped riding the busses for certain named things, that is correct, isn't it?COLVIN: For what?KNABE: For certain things that Reverend King said were the things you objected to?COLVIN: No, sir. It was in the beginning when they arrested me, when they seen how dirty they treated the Negro girls here, that they had began to feel like that all the time, though some of us just didn't have the guts to stand up.KNABE: Did you have a leader when you started this bus boycott?COLVIN: Did we have a leader? Our leaders is just we ourself. SER-DNA. Transcript of Record and Proceedings, _Browder_v. Gayle, May 11, 1956.Although she was ably defended by Fred Gray and Charles Langford, the city's only African American attorneys, two weeks after her arrest the juvenile court judge (first cousin of Alabama senator J. Lister Hill) found Colvin guilty of violating the state, not city, bus segregation law and of assault and battery for resisting arrest. He gave her probation. Gray and Langford appealed to the Montgomery Circuit Court, where on May 6 Judge Eugene Carter affirmed the assault conviction while dismissing the segregation code violation. His ruling prevented the lawyers from using Colvin's arrest as a test case to challenge the bus segregation laws, which in any event her parents did not want.The Colvin incident aroused the black community. The Citizens Coordinating Committee, led by businessman Rufus Lewis, issued an appeal to the "Friends of Justice and Human Rights." It denounced "certain legal and moral injustices incurred in the public transportation system" and offered the Colvin case as "an opportunity, in the spirit of democracy, and in the spirit of Christ, to deal courageously with these problems."[3]Robinson recalled that for several days "large numbers refused to ride the buses" in a spontaneous protest.[4] In a meeting of black delegates with city and bus company officials, Robinson reportedly threatened an organized boycott when the talk got heated.Partly because of Colvin's arrest and the heightened tensions that resulted, bus segregation emerged for the first time as an issue in a Montgomery city election that same month. All three city commission seats, including the mayor's, were contested. In late February E. D. Nixon's Progressive Democratic Association had sponsored a candidates' forum at the Ben Moore Hotel, the city's sole black-owned hotel. In this unprecedented interracial meeting, African American activists cast aside their customary deference and interrogated the white candidates about their stands on the "Negroes' Most Urgent Needs." They began with the bus situation. Their mimeographed statement advocated the WPC seating proposal that would maintain bus segregation but on a more equitable basis.Commission candidate Clyde Sellers, a former state representative and Alabama Highway Patrol head, exploited the black demands in a full-page newspaper advertisement, concluding that "I will not be intimidated for the sake of a block of negro votes." His overtly racial appeal enabled him narrowly to defeat the incumbent, racial moderate Dave Birmingham, forcing a runoff election. Sellers won the runoff after Birmingham withdrew abruptly for health reasons. Mayor Gayle, a commissioner for twenty years, was easily reelected. They were joined by newcomer Frank Parks, who had prevailed with the help of black voters.1. This edited testimony is taken from the official trial transcript of State of Alabama v. M. L. King, Jr., March 19-22, 1956, Montgomery County Circuit Court, CMCR-AMC. The judge was Eugene Carter. The chief defense attorneys were Fred D. Gray and Charles D. Langford.2. Ellen Levine, Freedom's Children (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1993), pp. 20-22.3. Quoted in Lamont H. Yeakey, "The Montgomery, Alabama, Bus Boycott, 1955-56" (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1979), pp. 238-39.4. Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It, ed. David J. Garrow (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1987), p. 42. Here Is The Questionnaire Given Me By E. D. Nixon at a Meeting With All Candidates, and a Negro group at the Ben Moore HotelNegroes' Most Urgent Needs Following are a few of the most urgent needs of our people. Immediate attention should be given each of these. What is your stand toward them?1. The present bus situation. Negroes have to stand over empty seats of city buses, because the first ten seats are reserved for whites who sometime never ride. We wish to fill the bus from the back toward the front until all the seats are taken. This is done in Atlanta, Georgia, Mobile, Alabama and in most of our larger southern cities.2. Negro Representation on the Parks and Recreation Board. Our parks are in a deplorable condition. We have protested, yet nothing has been done toward improving them. Juvenile delinquency continues to increase. In many instances these children are not responsible. The city is. Nobody knows better than Negroes what their needs are.3. Sub-division for housing. Just recently a project for a sub-division for Negroes was presented before the City Commission for approval. Protests from whites and other objections prevented the development. There is no section wherein Negroes can expand to build decent homes. What of Lincoln Heights?4. Jobs for qualified Negroes. Certain civil service jobs are not open to Negroes, yet many are qualified. Negroes need jobs commensurate with their training. Everybody cannot teach.5. Negro representation on all boards affecting Negroes. Negroes are taxpayers; they are property owners or renters. They constitute about forty-six percent of the city's population. Many boards determine their destinies without any kind of representation whatsoever. Only Negroes are qualified to represent themselves adequately and properly.6. Congested areas, with inadequate or no fireplugs. Fire hazards are inviting.7. Lack of sewerage disposals makes it necessary to resort to out-door privies, which is a health hazard.8. Narrow streets, lack of curbing, unpaved streets in some sections. Immediate action should be taken on this traffic hazard.Gentleman, what is your stand on these issues? What will you do to improve these undemocratic practices? Your stand on these issues will enable us to better decide on whom we shall cast our ballot in the March election.Very truly yours,Montgomery Negroes Here Are My Answers: **In Answer To Question No. 1--**1--There is a state law which requires segregation of passengers on public conveyances. I feel that there should always be seats available for both races on our buses. **Questions Two and Five Are Inter-related and Here Is My Answer--**2-5--You have seen the candidates answers to these questions in the daily papers. Question No. 5 is just a follow up on question No. 2. If you appoint a negro to the parks and recreation board you have opened the way for negroes to be appointed on all of the other boards, which help govern our city. My answer was and is, "I would not recommend that the commission appoint a negro to the parks and recreation board, but I would gladly work with their representatives in an attempt to establish a negro park and expanded recreational facilities in Montgomery." **In Answer To Question No. Three--**3--I agree that the negroes of Montgomery do need a section of their own in which to build decent homes. But not in a section like Lincoln Heights, where they would be completely surrounded by housing developments occupied by white people. I am a firm believer in segregation as we now have it in Alabama, and the lack of adequate negro school facilities, in the Lincoln Heights area, would lead to dissatisfaction and dissention. I would be happy to try and help them locate a subdivision of their own, near more adequate negro school facilities--but never in Lincoln Heights. **Answering Question No. Four--**4--If the commission were to comply with this request it would be only a short time before negroes would be working along side of whites and whites along side of negroes, under the merit system, in our city hall. Our fire department, the nation's finest, under the leadership of Chief Bob Lampley, would soon be filled with negroes. I have always felt that if a man wanted a job bad enough he could go where the job, for which he is qualified, is available. There are places in the nation where civil service jobs for negroes in cities are available, but not in Montgomery. I will expend every effort to keep it that way. **Questions Six, Seven and Eight Are All Inter-related and Here Is My Answer--**6-7-8--Montgomery has done and is doing an excellent job in the field of slum clearance and public housing for the negroes. As one of your commissioners I will cooperate with the other commissioners in an attempt to complete this job and eliminate these hazards.I have answered these questions exactly the way I feel. I have many friends among the negroes of Montgomery and I will be fair and honest with them in all our contacts, yet I will not compromise my principles, not violate my Southern birthright to promise something I do not intend to do. I will not be intimidated for the sake of a block of negro votes.I come to you not seeking your votes with wild promises, but with a positive and constructive program, based on my training and experience in the fields of business and law enforcement. Montgomery Advertiser, March 20, 1955. Daybreak of Freedom | Home
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Preface . . . The Spirit of Montgomery The Montgomery bus boycott looms as a formative turning point of the twentieth century: harbinger of the African American freedom movement, which in turn inspired movements for freedom around the globe; springboard for the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr. in civil rights, human rights, and peacemaking; launching pad for the worldwide era of upheaval known as the "sixties," which lasted nearly two decades and dominated the rest of the century; marker of the midcentury divide between modern and postmodern. The bus boycott stands for all times as one of humankind's supreme democratic moments, a monumental struggle to actualize the American dream of freedom, equality, and constitutionalism. The nonviolent uprising of 1955 and 1956 represented a new founding of American democracy that pushed the nation a quantum leap closer to keeping faith with its parchment principles.The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution gave birth to the United States as a promise of freedom, something new in the eighteenth-century world. At that time American freedom meant independence from Great Britain and liberties for propertied Anglo-Saxon men. It remained an unfulfilled promise for nine out of ten inhabitants of the new world. African Americans, white women, wage workers fought to make their birthright real. They constructed a handle on freedom that they called "equal rights," a rallying cry that ascended from hush arbor and soap box, pulpit and tea table, penny press and fiery tract, to the Capitol and the White House.Abraham Lincoln crystallized the nation's second founding halfway through the holocaust of Civil War when he emancipated slaves and spoke the incantation of Gettysburg. The Gettysburg Address gathered the "full measure" of the war's death and devastation--hauntingly reflected by the awful battlefield backdrop--to illuminate and consecrate the watchword of equality that had been raised up for a generation by abolitionists black and white, transcendentalists, women's rights activists, and other disturbers of the peace. Just as the Declaration of Independence had been concretized by the Constitution, so Lincoln's linking of liberty and equality was incorporated in the three Civil War amendments that abolished slavery, gave citizenship and legal rights to African Americans, and enfranchised black men. But the unfolding of freedom was far from finished.For the freed people freedom and equal rights, even the very words, were twisted into new forms of enslavement and exploitation. The Jim Crow caste system of segregation, at first an expedient and then a whole culture and way of life, persisted for nearly a century, empowered by the systematic disempowerment of black men and women (and poor whites) by force, fraud, and reform. Black protests were sporadic, isolated, and short. Federal court decisions began undoing segregation slowly, in measured paces. Then in the mid-1950s a newly urban community of African Americans in the Alabama capital rose up to challenge Jim Crow. Organizing and mobilizing their people for over a year, black citizens dramatized in everyday life the popular sovereignty envisioned by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution's preamble. They injected the energy and spirit of democracy--living grassroots democracy--into their bittersweet inheritance of freedom and equality.The actions of Montgomery's black citizenry, along with the words leaders spoke from pulpits that ennobled and immortalized the mass protest, constituted the nation's third founding--the first in Philadelphia, the second at Gettysburg, the third in the "Cradle of the Confederacy." The Montgomery bus boycott made democracy tangible and heartfelt for those who took part in it and for wider circles swayed by its ripples--a shared communal awakening that commingled politics, emotion, and spirituality. Montgomery's democratic moment was its own, unique, unrepeatable, and far from flawless, but its vital elements took hold as standards for the epic black freedom movement that grew from it--and to some degree in later struggles for liberation, from South Africa to Prague to Tienanmen Square.Montgomery showed that democracy cannot bloom without community. The richer the communal soil, the stronger its democratic shoots. The bus boycott exemplified an unparalleled unity across class lines that black movements have dreamt about since. The driving force of it all was thousands of African American women, middle class and working class, active in churches, clubs, and sororities. They transplanted democracy from their sheltered sanctuaries to public streets and squares. They turned faith and friendship from the healing balm of survival into the fire of defiance and transformation.Blocked from voting by and large, lacking representation in the political arena, Montgomery's black citizens understood that, like their nineteenth-century forebears who fought slavery, democracy meant that they "must themselves strike the blow." They must act as their own agents of change. They came to believe, as their preeminent leader told them, that "the great glory of democracy is the right to protest for right." Just as they and their ancestors had tilled hard soil, planted seeds, harvested crops, hewn wood, repaired tools, cooked food, sewn clothes--for whites but also for themselves--so democracy, they found, was something palpable to hold and mold in their own hands, to carry forward step by step. Democracy too had its seasons and cycles. The journey mattered. Democracy was more than a right, more than a responsibility. It was a pantheon of hope and faith.These citizens' reach for democracy was rooted in the churches, scriptures, and spirituals that tied them to their divinity and to generations past and not yet born. They made Montgomery a praying movement, a testament to their faith in God and, through God, faith in themselves. A testament to God's grace.Their Bibles and preachers taught them that they were God's chosen people like the children of Israel. The bus boycott consummated this faith, made it surge alive in mass meetings, car pools, and weary soulful walking. Every day they were moving toward the Promised Land. The mass church-based protest exalted them as makers of history, bearers of God's will. The sense of divine mission catapulted their self-esteem, their dignity, their collective self-confidence. They believed that they were building, through toil, sacrifice, and sharing, a "new Jerusalem" in Montgomery and "a new heaven and a new earth" in the dispirited South. In this land of fulfilled promises, justice would "roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Every person would be revealed as a child of God.Black people of Montgomery believed that they were breaking a new day. Chapter 1 . . . Prelude For a generation, Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, and other lawyers for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had pursued litigation through federal courts challenging racial segregation. Precedent upon precedent, the NAACP legal juggernaut won a succession of court battles in the 1940s that advanced black voting rights and desegregation of public postgraduate education. The NAACP legal reform strategy culminated in the Brown v. Board of Education decision of May 17, 1954, declaring public school segregation unconstitutional.Four days after the unanimous Supreme Court ruling, an English professor at Alabama State College in Montgomery wrote a letter to the mayor urging him to accept minor reforms to improve the treatment of black passengers on the city's segregated buses. Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, president of the Women's Political Council, warned him that a number of black organizations were considering a boycott of buses if changes were not made. She had been directly lobbying the city commissioners to remedy bus inequities since she became head of the WPC four years before. Although she claimed to oppose such "forceful measures" as a bus boycott, she was a lightning rod for the community's rising sentiment for direct action. Indeed, that spring her own students at all-black Alabama State, including seventeen-year-old freshman Richard Nelson, had started their own bus boycott. Students had thrown bricks and bottles at buses and physically removed riders. According to Nelson, she had tried to discourage them from boycotting.[1]May 21, 1954Honorable Mayor W. A. GayleCity HallMontgomery, AlabamaDear Sir:The Women's Political Council is very grateful to you and the City Commissioners for the hearing you allowed our representative during the month of March, 1954, when the "city-bus-fare-increase case" was being reviewed. There were several things the Council asked for:1. A city law that would make it possible for Negroes to sit from back toward front, and whites from front toward back until all the seats are taken.2. That Negroes not be asked or forced to pay fare at front and go to the rear of the bus to enter.3. That busses stop at every corner in residential sections occupied by Negroes as they do in communities where whites reside.We are happy to report that busses have begun stopping at more corners now in some sections where Negroes live than previously. However, the same practices in seating and boarding the bus continue.Mayor Gayle, three-fourths of the riders of these public conveyances are Negroes. If Negroes did not patronize them, they could not possibly operate.More and more of our people are already arranging with neighbors and friends to ride to keep from being insulted and humiliated by bus drivers.There has been talk from twenty-five or more local organizations of planning a city-wide boycott of busses. We, sir, do not feel that forceful measures are necessary in bargaining for a convenience which is right for all bus passengers. We, the Council, believe that when this matter has been put before you and the Commissioners, that agreeable terms can be met in a quiet and unostensible manner to the satisfaction of all concerned.Many of our Southern cities in neighboring states have practiced the policies we seek without incident whatsoever. Atlanta, Macon and Savannah in Georgia have done this for years. Even Mobile, in our own state, does this and all the passengers are satisfied.Please consider this plea, and if possible, act favorably upon it, for even now plans are being made to ride less, or not at all, on our busses. We do not want this.Respectfully yours,The Women's Political CouncilJo Ann Robinson, PresidentMCDA-AMC.1. "ASU Student Left Buses before Parks," Montgomery Advertiser, December 1, 1995; editor's interview with Richard Nelson, December 4, 1995, Montgomery, Ala.Two years later, in the March 1956 conspiracy trial of Martin Luther King Jr., bus passengers testified under oath in Montgomery Circuit Court about their past mistreatment by white bus drivers and how they had challenged it in different ways.Thelma Glass, a geography professor at Alabama State College, testified about activities of the Women's Political Council in regard to the bus situation and other issues of concern to black Montgomery.[1]Thelma Glass, having been duly sworn, was examined and testified as follows:DEFENSE LAWYER: State your name to the Court.THELMA GLASS: Thelma Williams Glass.DEFENSE: Do you live in Montgomery?GLASS: Yes, I do.DEFENSE: How long have you lived in Montgomery?GLASS: Since 1947. Just recently I have been working around the college at Montgomery.DEFENSE: Are you a member of the Women's Political Council?GLASS: I am.DEFENSE: Do you know when that council was first organized?GLASS: Yes, I do. The Women's Political Council was organized in the spring of 1949.DEFENSE: For what purpose or purposes was this council organized?GLASS: Well, maybe the best overall purpose, I could say, would be to promote good citizenship. We have maybe one or two specific activities we have always listed in our prospectus under citizenship.DEFENSE: What are those activities?GLASS: The Women's Political Council naturally is concerned with women's activities. In the first place, we enter into political and civic problems, particularly those relating to Negroes. In the second place, we encourage women to become registered voters, to pay poll tax and vote. In the third place, to enter those women in a better national government as a result. Most activities are proposed and designed to acquaint women with current problems.DEFENSE: As a member of this group, have they had any connection with the Montgomery bus situation?GLASS: Well, that is one of our specific problems, particularly as relating to Negroes, and one of our current civic problems. Problems relating to the busses have recently been part of our program.DEFENSE: What were some of those problems your group has considered?PROSECUTOR: We object to what the group considered, what it did or didn't.JUDGE: If it has to do with busses it would be admissible. What they considered wouldn't be.DEFENSE: What particular problem has your organization taken up with the bus company, if any?GLASS: We have been trying for the past six years, we have had various committees from the Women's Political Council who have made appeals to the City Commissioners. The things particularly that we had asked for--maybe there are four specific things as I can remember that we did send committees to ask for specifically.DEFENSE: What are those things?GLASS: Well, the very first thing we objected to mainly was Negroes have had to stand over empty seats.PROSECUTOR: We object.JUDGE: Testify to what you took up with the City Commission, what you told them. That would be admissible.DEFENSE: Had this group had a meeting with the City officials of Montgomery?GLASS: Oh, yes, sir, it has numerous meetings.DEFENSE: You have called on the bus company?GLASS: We have.DEFENSE: Will you tell the court what happened?PROSECUTOR: We object to that unless it is shown the time, the date it happened and where.GLASS: In November, 1953, a committee from the Women's Political Council actually asked for seven specific things, I think. Not all pertaining to the busses, but I can tell you about six of the things.PROSECUTOR: We object to anything unless it pertains to the busses.JUDGE: Objection sustained.GLASS: Negroes had to stand over empty seats when no whites were riding; requesting them not to occupy those seats where they are unoccupied; Negroes pay fares at the front door, get off and go to the rear door to board the bus; when fares are paid at the front passengers should get on at the front; there is a danger of a passenger being struck without the driver knowing it; and there have been instances where persons have paid their fares and the bus has driven off and left them standing; busses stop in sections occupied by white at every corner, but in sections occupied by Negroes they stop at every other block; since all pay the same fare the busses should stop at every corner in all communities. Those are the specific things that this committee asked for in November of 1953 that deal with busses.DEFENSE: Have you had any other meetings with the City Commissioners on the bus situation?GLASS: On the bus situation we have.DEFENSE: Do you remember the dates?GLASS: This meeting in March of 1954, the Women's Political Council, along with a large labor group, the Federation of Women's Clubs, the Citizens' Steering Committee, the Progressive Democrats, along with representatives of the Women's Political Council.DEFENSE: Did you attend this particular meeting?GLASS: This particular meeting in March, 1954, I did.PROSECUTOR: We move to strike all that testimony.JUDGE: If you were not there you wouldn't know what happened, you couldn't testify to that. Where you were present, you could.DEFENSE: Will you testify as to what happened at this particular meeting in 1954?GLASS: Well, we went before the Commission with a full program we later on developed with a re-statement of some of the same things the committee had worked on in November of 1953.DEFENSE: Was that the Montgomery City Commission?GLASS: That is the Montgomery City Commission. The usual seating arrangement, people were still complaining of standing over empty seats; let Negroes board the busses at the front where they paid their fares; many had been left on the sidewalk after paying their fares; busses should stop at every corner; people had to walk, and they had a right complaining, and names and dates, and names of busses, the bus lines, and specific experiences with Negroes, were turned over to the Commission from people who complained against the bus company. [. . .]Georgia Gilmore, having been duly sworn, was examined and testified as follows: [. . .]DEFENSE: How long have you been a resident of the City of Montgomery?GEORGIA GILMORE: I don't know how long. I came here in 1920.DEFENSE: During the time you have resided in the City of Montgomery, have you had opportunity to ride the busses owned by the Montgomery Bus Line?GILMORE: Yes, sir, I have. At that time I did all my riding on the busses. They were my sole transportation because I didn't own any car or motor vehicle whatsoever.DEFENSE: I believe you stated you did all your riding?GILMORE: Did all my riding.DEFENSE: When did you stop riding the busses?GILMORE: October of 1955.DEFENSE: For what purpose did you cease riding the busses?GILMORE: The last of October, 1955, on a Friday afternoon between the hours of three and five o'clock I was on the corner of Court and Montgomery Street, and I usually rode Oak Park or South Jackson busses for both of them came up to that corner. This particular Oak Park bus came up to the corner. I don't know the driver's name. I would know him if I saw him. He is tall and has red skin. This bus driver is tall, hair red, and has freckles, and wears glasses. He is a very nasty bus driver. This particular time the bus was pretty near full of colored people, only two white people on the bus. I put my money in the cash box and then he told me to get off. He shouted I had to get on in back. I told him I was already on the bus and I couldn't see why I had to get off. A lot of colored people were in the middle aisle almost half way to the front, couldn't he let me stand there? Other people were down there, colored, not white passengers. He said, "I told you to get off and go around and get in the back door." I have a rather high temper and I figured, I have never been in any trouble whatsoever in my life. I was always taught that two wrongs don't make a right.PROSECUTOR: We object to this.JUDGE: All right.GILMORE: I am just telling you. So I got off the front door and went around the side of the bus to get in the back door, and when I reached the back door and was about to get on he shut the back door and pulled off, and I didn't even ride the bus after paying my fare. So I decided right then and there I wasn't going to ride the busses any more, because of what happened in there. I was upset within myself, for I was so aggravated with the driver I didn't want to raise any fuss. And so I haven't missed the busses because I really don't have to ride them. The taxi takes me in the morning--I haven't returned to the busses--I walk, just to get a taxi in the morning and walk home. My children going to school--PROSECUTOR: We object to what her children do.DEFENSE: You are a member of the Negro race, are you?GILMORE: I am.DEFENSE: Believe you said the bus driver was nasty to you?GILMORE: He was.DEFENSE: What do you mean by the fact he was nasty to you?GILMORE: Well, I didn't mean going around to the back door. What he said: "Nigger, get out that door and go around to the back door." I resented his tone because I had already paid my fare. When I paid my fare and they got the money they don't know Negro money from white money.DEFENSE: Have you had any other unpleasant experiences riding busses prior to October?GILMORE: Yes, sir, various. Many times I have been standing without any white people on the bus and have taken seats, and when the driver sees you he says, "You have to move because those seats aren't for you Negroes."DEFENSE: During your experience riding busses in the City of Montgomery have you observed other bus drivers that have mistreated Negro passengers?GILMORE: Lots of times I have seen people mistreated positively for nothing.DEFENSE: What type of treatment have you generally received from these bus drivers? Have you ever heard any Negroes at all call the drivers any names? GILMORE: No, never have.DEFENSE: Have you heard the drivers call the Negroes any names?GILMORE: I have.DEFENSE: What are some names you heard?GILMORE: "Black bastard," and "Back up, nigger, you ain't got no damn business up here, get back where you belong."DEFENSE: You say this happened frequently?GILMORE: Lots of times, because at that time I rode the bus daily.DEFENSE: Can you give the name of another Negro citizen you observed being mistreated by them?GILMORE: I cannot remember the names of anybody else except my mother, and she is deceased now.DEFENSE: What happened in her case?PROSECUTOR: We object unless she was present.DEFENSE: Were you present?GILMORE: Yes, sir, I was.DEFENSE: What happened in her case?GILMORE: She was an old person and it was hard for her to get in and out of the bus except the front door. The bus was crowded that evening with everybody coming home from work. She went to the front door to get on the bus, and this bus driver was mean and surly, and when she asked him if she could get in the front door he said she would have to go around and get in the back door, and she said she couldn't get in, the steps were too high. He said she couldn't go in the front door. He said: "You damn niggers are all alike. You don't want to do what you are told. If I had my way I would kill off every nigger person." And she always said, "You cannot ride, you are riding among maniacs," and she said--PROSECUTOR: We object to what she said.JUDGE: Sustain the objection.GILMORE: Makes me mad to think about it. [. . .]Martha K. Walker, having been duly sworn, was examined and testified as follows:DEFENSE: During the time you were riding these busses did you have any unpleasant experiences with the bus driver?MARTHA WALKER: Many of them.DEFENSE: Do you recall specifically the last unpleasant experience?WALKER: Yes, sir, I do recall.DEFENSE: When was that?WALKER: It was 1955.DEFENSE: Tell us about that and when.WALKER: Before Thanksgiving of 1955, I went out to get the bus on North Ripley Street, coming to town. I guess about four busses passed me up with about five or six colored people in the back. They had plenty of room up front to have gotten on them and sit back there on all of them. I had my husband with me, of course. He is blind and I was taking him down to the Veterans' Administration this particular day. So it took so long to get a bus, although the bus situation out that way is bad anyway. So I turned around and went back in my apartment and called the manager of the bus company. I got him on the phone, so I told him we had been passed up by four busses, and the fifth bus stopped and we got on the bus and rode to town. They had plenty of room in the front to sit in the back. We sat behind the back door on the little short seat there to the right.DEFENSE: How far was that seat from the rear of the bus? How many seats between the seat in which you sat and the back of the bus?WALKER: One long seat and the side.DEFENSE: So you were just one seat from the rear of the bus?WALKER: That is right.DEFENSE: You were not in the middle, were you?WALKER: No.DEFENSE: You were not in the front of the bus?WALKER: That is right.DEFENSE: Go right ahead and tell us.WALKER: He said when we got to Decatur Street and Columbus Street there, we had to get up, a couple of white girls got on the bus. And at that time my husband was blind. His condition is better now, but he is sightless though. And we still sat there. And that bus had two sets of empty seats, the front part was filled except two empties. And I was looking up toward the mirror and watching him because I was expecting some unruly words. He stopped. After he went another block he stopped. I think it was, I guess, in another block, in another street going up to Robinson's Corner Market, in that block, and I was still in a nervous strain there, and he looked back again, and then he pulled off and stopped within, you know, the middle of the block, and said, "Don't you niggers see that empty seat behind you?" I said, "Yes, I see it." He said, "Well, get up and get on back there." Well, that just tore my husband. We got up and got off the bus. Now, that is true, that experience.DEFENSE: How far were you when you got off the bus, how far were you from your destination?WALKER: It was near a feed store down there. I believe they call it the Alabama Feed Store, if I am not mistaken. We walked from there to the Veterans' Administration with me leading him. [. . .]DEFENSE: Have you had other unpleasant experiences with the bus drivers or bus company?WALKER: Yes, I have.DEFENSE: Do you recall any specific incidence?WALKER: Yes, I do.DEFENSE: Will you tell us when it was and where it was?WALKER: In 1954.DEFENSE: Where was this?WALKER: In Montgomery.DEFENSE: On which line, which bus line?WALKER: Maxwell Field bus line.DEFENSE: Go ahead, tell us about that.WALKER: My husband was coming back home again from the Veterans' hospital, from the Tuskegee Hospital, and he had his sight taken from him in Germany--PROSECUTOR: We object to all these preliminaries. They wouldn't have anything to do with this specific incidence.JUDGE: Yes. She said she was with him and he was blind. Tell what happened on the bus.WALKER: Well, we were on this bus, we boarded the bus down town and our destination was to get off at Dickerson and Clay Street, we were living on Clay, and it was about 3:30 in the afternoon, and we pulled the cord. Different times I had to pull it to stop before it stopped. We pulled the cord in time for him to get stopped, and by the time he stopped, I thought he must have been stopping, I got ready to get my husband off the bus. Now, he noticed me when I left the bus, I was leading my husband. And when I got ready to get off he slowed down, he didn't stop, he slowed up. When he slowed up, I stepped down on the side of the step there, and he opened the door. I got out, ready for my husband to step down, and just as my husband put his left foot down, the driver started on out with his right foot still on the bus, and I screamed, and a white lady was in there and she said to wait a moment. Well, finally I jiggled his foot free, he couldn't get loose by himself, and with me helping him he did, and he got his foot out. I ran in a store at the corner of Dickerson and Clay and said--I was crying--I said, "I just had some trouble with a bus operator."PROSECUTOR: We object to any hearsay testimony.JUDGE: Objection sustained.WALKER: I have to give that.PROSECUTOR: Don't testify about that.JUDGE: Tell what you know yourself.WALKER: Anyway, I know it broke the skin on his right ankle.DEFENSE: What did you do in that store, did you do something there?WALKER: I got the manager of the bus company's name from the white lady that runs the store.DEFENSE: What else did you do?WALKER: When I left there I left my husband standing over there by her building and crossed the street on the other side. When the bus came back coming toward town, I knew, I recognized the bus. I waited for him. When he came back I stopped him. I said, "Look yourself what you just done to my husband." He said, "I don't remember seeing you niggers on the bus."DEFENSE: I believe you said he used the word "niggers"?WALKER: Yes.DEFENSE: Spell that word for us.WALKER: N-i-g-g-e-r-s, niggers.DEFENSE: Go ahead.WALKER: I said, "My husband and I got off that bus there." And I said, "He caught his foot in the door and broke the skin here on his ankle." He said, "I didn't do no such damn thing." That is the way he worded it. I said, "He is over there on the corner to prove it." I said, "If you cannot give me any consideration," I said, "I am afraid I will have to take further steps." It didn't do any good, of course.DEFENSE: Did you report the accident to the bus company?WALKER: I certainly did.DEFENSE: Did you hear from them?WALKER: They promised me I would, but I never did. [. . .]Stella Brooks, having been duly sworn, was examined and testified as follows:DEFENSE: I believe your name is Stella Brooks?STELLA BROOKS: Estella Brooks.DEFENSE: What is your address?BROOKS: 633 Cleveland Avenue.DEFENSE: That is located in the City of Montgomery?BROOKS: That is right.DEFENSE: How long have you been living there?BROOKS: Two years.DEFENSE: How long have you been a resident of the City of Montgomery?BROOKS: All my life.DEFENSE: You are over the age of twenty-one, are you not?BROOKS: Twenty-six.DEFENSE: You are also a member of the Negro race, are you not?BROOKS: That is right.DEFENSE: I ask you during your lifetime in the City of Montgomery whether or not you have had occasions to ride these busses in the City, operated by the Montgomery City Lines?BROOKS: Yes, I have.DEFENSE: Do you ride these busses frequently, or just sometime, or what manner?BROOKS: I haven't rode the busses since they killed my husband, since 1950.DEFENSE: What month?BROOKS: 12th of August.DEFENSE: For what reason did you stop riding the busses?BROOKS: Because the bus driver was the cause of my husband's death.PROSECUTOR: We object to that.JUDGE: Tell what happened.DEFENSE: Tell the Court what happened that caused you to stop riding the busses.BROOKS: He just got on before the bus driver told him, the bus was crowded, he asked for his dime back and he wouldn't give his dime back.DEFENSE: What happened then?BROOKS: The police killed him.DEFENSE: Did the bus driver call the police?BROOKS: The bus driver called the police and the police came up and shot him.DEFENSE: And shot him?BROOKS: Yes, sir. [. . .]Henrietta Brinson, having been duly sworn, was examined and testified as follows: [. . .]DEFENSE: How long have you been a resident and citizen of Montgomery, Alabama?HENRIETTA BRINSON: Ever since I married.DEFENSE: During the time you have lived in Montgomery I presume you had occasion to ride the busses?BRINSON: Yes, sir.DEFENSE: Of Montgomery City Lines?BRINSON: Yes, sir, I have.DEFENSE: When was the last time you rode the busses?BRINSON: I rode December the 4th.DEFENSE: December the 4th, 1955?BRINSON: That is right.DEFENSE: Were you a frequent rider or just rode occasionally?BRINSON: I rode all the time. I used to ride the trolley before the busses--twice a day. I ride in the morning and ride in the afternoon. I got two places I got to go a day.DEFENSE: During the last ten years did you encounter unpleasant experiences with some or all of the bus drivers?BRINSON: Oh, yes, I have.DEFENSE: Will you relate the time and place of your first experience that you had?BRINSON: I cannot tell you. I remember the time, but I don't know the date.DEFENSE: Your best judgment?BRINSON: It was 1953.DEFENSE: What happened?BRINSON: I ride the Court Street bus, and when I would go to get on the Court Street bus you had to push to get on the bus on account of the school children, so many white children going to Lanier School. I wasn't able to get in unless I pushed to get in with the white children. So I started in with the white children and left my transfer at the door and went on back and stood up in the aisle of the bus. And he stood up and said, "Who gave me this old transfer?" I cannot tell you the awful name he called me. He is the meanest man I ever saw in my life. I don't know his name, but I rode that bus all the time, and I rode to work in South Cloverdale. And why he had such a nasty way with the colored, I just don't know. He looked at me and said, "You gave me that transfer, I saw you give me that transfer." I said, "You just laid that transfer on top of the other transfers," and I said, "There it is." (Indicating) He said, "Who are you talking to?" I said, "I am talking to you. Every time I catch the South Cloverdale I always have to worry with you about something. I don't see why you always keep on griping about something. The other bus driver that carries me on the South Cloverdale bus, you don't have no trouble with him." So he looked at me like that and said, "Who do you think you are talking to? You are just getting off this bus, all you niggers behaving like a parcel of cows." I said, "Well, that is all right. Just as long as I get to work." And that is what I did. We have had a lot of trouble with bus drivers because they are all working together and they don't want to treat us the right way.DEFENSE: Can you relate another circumstance and, if so, give us the time and place?BRINSON: I cannot give you any time.DEFENSE: Your best judgment?BRINSON: I was on Day Street one afternoon coming in from work, and this bus came from Highland Avenue.DEFENSE: When was this?BRINSON: This was year before last now.DEFENSE: 1953?BRINSON: Yes, sir, that is right. I got on at Dexter. And when I got on at Dexter, well, I stood by the door, in front of the window, it was really hot, and I felt really bad that day, the day being hot and I was tired, I had worked two places. And I was standing up on the side as you come in the back door, I stood right there, I stood up in the back on this other side just as you enter into the door, and this white couple was sitting there until the bus got to the Square and they got off. And standing up I began to feel so bad so I sat down and hoisted the window. When I hoisted the window he looked at me, but I didn't look up. I just looked out the window. He said, "You, I am talking to you." So I had to look up. Finally I went on back, and he said, "I am talking to you, all you niggers know we got a law in Alabama." And this is what I would like to know, when they charge us dimes on the busses--PROSECUTOR: We object to any argumental part by the witness.BRINSON: Can I speak?JUDGE: Just a moment. You are supposed to answer any question. Don't give us any discourse. Just answer any question.BRINSON: Because we all feel we need the busses.JUDGE: Just a moment. We are not going to hear any sermon from you. You are here as a witness. Just answer the question.BRINSON: I believe you all feel like we ought to work together. Don't you want to hear what I have to say?JUDGE: No.DEFENSE: Just answer any question. You had numerous experiences?BRINSON: Correct, I had. And I am just fed up with these bus drivers. I am just fed up to my neck.JUDGE: Do you understand you are on the witness stand now and I have told you to answer the questions that are asked you. I will tell you what I can do if you won't do that.BRINSON: All right.DEFENSE: Don't volunteer any information. Answer the questions I am asking you.BRINSON: All right.DEFENSE: You have had numerous incidences, have you not?BRINSON: Yes, I have.DEFENSE: And you have observed other people have numerous incidences?BRINSON: Yes, sir.DEFENSE: Unpleasant experiences with bus drivers?BRINSON: Sure, I have. [. . .]Gladys Moore, having been duly sworn, was examined and testified as follows:DEFENSE: Have you been on that bus during the ten years in which you rode the busses here in Montgomery when all of the Negro seats in back were crowded and you were standing up with empty seats in the front?GLADYS MOORE: I have been on that bus.DEFENSE: Were you ever at any time during that time allowed in those seats that were empty?MOORE: Not any time.DEFENSE: Did you all move when you were asked to move?MOORE: Well, sometimes I don't think they could because they didn't have enough room, and the bus drivers wouldn't know anything about it unless you told them.DEFENSE: Have you ever seen anybody or heard anybody complain at any time?MOORE: No, I haven't because you are toward the rear of the bus and when the driver tells you to move you look the other way.DEFENSE: How were you treated by the bus drivers on these two lines? Were you treated courteously? How were you treated generally?MOORE: No, not courteously.DEFENSE: Just tell us how you were treated.MOORE: Just as rough as could be. I mean not like we are human, but like we was some kind of animal.DEFENSE: The general manner was discourteous?MOORE: That is right.DEFENSE: During the whole course of those ten years?MOORE: Yes, sir. Some drivers wasn't.DEFENSE: Some of them?MOORE: Some weren't as bad as others.DEFENSE: Were not all bad?MOORE: They wasn't good.DEFENSE: Did they call Negroes names?MOORE: Well, coming home on the bus, just getting on the Highland Avenue bus, and the driver--I don't know his name now--he said, "Don't you upset me with the racket." I stood still. There wasn't any disorder in the back of the bus whatever. And he said, "You niggers there."DEFENSE: Will you state the whole thing you heard him say, begin at the beginning, tell what he said.MOORE: He stopped the bus and looked back, they was just all regularly talking, and he said, "You niggers, come on and get your fare and get off." I guess he gave the fare to some. Because I wanted to get home I stayed on the bus.DEFENSE: Will you spell that word he used for me?MOORE: (spelling) N-i-g-g-e-r-s.PROSECUTOR: We object to this testimony and move to exclude it until we know the time and place.MOORE: She was indicating her experience.JUDGE: About when was it, in your best judgment? What month was it, what year it was?MOORE: This was about 1950. It has been a good long while.DEFENSE: Have you had any other unpleasant experiences on either of these lines?PROSECUTOR: We object unless we know the time.JUDGE: Ask her to fix the time.DEFENSE: Have you had any other unpleasant experiences while riding on any of these bus lines?MOORE: I have.DEFENSE: Can you tell us what routes and approximately when they happened?MOORE: I could tell you what happened in 1952.DEFENSE: Where?MOORE: On a South Jackson bus going out.DEFENSE: Tell us about it.MOORE: This bus was the South Jackson bus going out, when I boarded it in town and rode that bus out. On the corner of South Jackson and Adams Street, the bus driver closed the door on my foot getting off the bus. And I had on a coat, it was a heavy coat, and landed on the highway. It throwed me clean off the bus when the door caught my foot. He said, "The next time you catch your foot I ought to drag you all the way up South Jackson Hill." He didn't wait long enough to see whether I am hurt, or not. I didn't report the injury because I didn't think it would do any good.JUDGE: Why did you stop riding the busses on December the 5th?MOORE: Why did I stop?JUDGE: Yes.MOORE: Well, no one told me to stop riding the busses.JUDGE: I didn't ask you that.MOORE: I am going to explain it to you. I didn't have anything to do with it.JUDGE: I didn't ask you that.MOORE: What is it you want me to answer?JUDGE: I asked you why you stopped on December the 5th. I want to know for my own information why did you stop riding on December 5th?MOORE: I stopped because we had been treated so bad down through the years that we decided we wouldn't ride the busses no more.JUDGE: Who do you mean by "we"?MOORE: All the fifty thousand Negroes in Montgomery.JUDGE: When did you all decide?MOORE: Well, after so many things happened. Wasn't no one man started it. We all started it overnight.JUDGE: Where did you all decide it? You said you all decided it.MOORE: Well, after that accident happened to Mrs. Parks, we all knowed it was unfair, and after they treated her like they did. So we just had an inward feeling, we just quit riding the busses.JUDGE: Where did you all meet to decide that?MOORE: We didn't meet nowhere to decide that.JUDGE: Do you mean to tell the Court there was no meeting in which you decided? When did you decide to quit riding the buses, was it decided on December the 5th, the night of December the 5th?MOORE: It wasn't decided that night. It came out in the paper. The bus company announced it in the paper that we stopped riding the busses.JUDGE: Did it come out in the paper before December 5th or after December 5th?MOORE: It came out before.JUDGE: That you were not going to ride on December the 5th?MOORE: That is right.JUDGE: And that is what stopped you?MOORE: No, not exactly. What stopped me was--JUDGE: When did you make up your mind? That is what I am asking you. When did you make up your mind not to ride any more, since December the 5th?MOORE: Because Mrs. Parks was mistreated on the bus, that is why.JUDGE: You haven't answered my question. Why did you decide particularly on December the 5th, not December 6th or December 1st, or any other time?MOORE: Mrs. Parks was riding the bus and we didn't think she was treated fairly, that is why. She wasn't justly treated.JUDGE: You still haven't answered my question. Why you decided on December the 5th. That is what I was asking.MOORE: I think I answered that clear enough.JUDGE: What caused you to stop riding? Why did you decide not to do so on December 5th, that particular date?DEFENSE: I think the witness has given an answer in reference to the question. I think her answers relate to the question. I think she said why.JUDGE: She has given her reason for it. The only date I have asked her about particularly was December the 5th.DEFENSE: I think she has answered it.JUDGE: I don't think so.MOORE: I think I have answered it in as clear words as I can.JUDGE: I want you to tell me why you picked this particular date, December the 5th. You told me why you quit riding. Why December the 5th?MOORE: Because that is the day of this Mrs. Parks' trial, and after they mistreated her the way they did and fined her. We didn't think she was guilty of what they accused her of. That is why we quit riding the busses. Is that clear enough?JUDGE: That is clear enough. [. . .] CMCR-AMC. State of Alabama v. M. L. King, Jr., March 19-22, 1956. On May 11, 1956, Claudette Colvin, one of four plaintiffs in the Browder v. Gayle lawsuit challenging bus segregation, testified in a Montgomery federal court hearing about her refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger in March 1955. She was then a fifteen-year-old junior at Booker T. Washington High School. "I thought segregation was horrible," Colvin later recalled. "My first anger I remember was when I wanted to go to the rodeo. Daddy bought my sister boots and bought us both cowboy hats. That's as much of the rodeo as we got. The show was at the Coliseum, and it was only for white kids. I was nine or ten."You could buy dry goods at the five-and-ten-cent stores, Kress's, H. L. Green, J. J. Newberry's," she continued, "but you couldn't sit down and eat there. When I realized that, I was really angry." Her mind "got pricked" by a ninth-grade history teacher, who impressed on her the importance of self-worth. Colvin wrote a class essay complaining about the indignities of segregation, especially for a teenage girl out shopping for clothes. She refused to straighten her hair, wearing it in little "kinky" braids--even though her friends ridiculed her and her boyfriend broke up with her. She wore her braids "until I proved to them that I wasn't crazy."[2]Claudette Colvin, called as a witness, being duly sworn, testified as follows:FRED GRAY, COUNSEL FOR PLAINTIFFS: State your name?CLAUDETTE COLVIN: Claudette Colvin.GRAY: What is your address, Miss Colvin?COLVIN: 658 Dixie Drive.GRAY: How old are you?COLVIN: Sixteen.GRAY: Who are your parents?COLVIN: C. P. Colvin and Mary Ann Colvin.GRAY: You are one of the plaintiffs in this lawsuit?COLVIN: Yes.GRAY: Prior to December 5, 1955, last year, did you ride the City Buses?COLVIN: Yes.GRAY: How often did you ride?COLVIN: Twice a day.GRAY: Have you rode the busses since then?COLVIN: No.GRAY: Did you have an incident at any time while you were riding the buses?COLVIN: Yes.GRAY: When did this occur?COLVIN: March 2, 1955.GRAY: What bus did you ride?COLVIN: Highland Gardens.GRAY: About what time was it?COLVIN: About 2:30 p.m..GRAY: Where were you on the way to?COLVIN: I was going home from school.GRAY: Will you please tell the Court exactly what happened on March 2, 1955?COLVIN: I rode the bus and it was turning in on Perry and Dexter Avenue, and me and some other school children, I sit on the seat on the left hand side, on the seat just above the emergency door, me and another girl beside me.GRAY: You say another girl was sitting by you and another girl was sitting across from you, do you mean those two girls were Negroes?COLVIN: Yes, sir. And he drove on down to the next block, and by the time all the people got in there, he seen there were no more vacant seats. He asked us to get up, and the big girl got up but I didn't. So he drove on down into the Square, and some more people boarded the bus. So, Mrs. Hamilton, she got on the bus, and she sat down beside me, and that leaves the other seat vacant.GRAY: You mean that from across the aisle the other two girls had gotten up when the bus driver requested them to?COLVIN: Yes, sir. So he looked back through the window and he saw us, and he was surprised to see she [_Hamilton_] was sitting down, too. He asked her to get up then and he asked both of us to get up. She said she was not going to get up, she didn't feel like it. He drove on down to the next corner or block, rather. And he got up and asked us to get up. So, he directly asked me to get up first. So I told him I was not going to get up. He said, "If you are not going to get up I will get a policeman." So, he went somewhere and got a policeman. He [_policeman_] said, "Why are you not going to get up?" He said, "It is against the law here." So I told him that I didn't know that it was a law that a colored person had to get up and give a white person a seat when there were not any more vacant seats and colored people were standing up. I said I was just as good as any white person and I wasn't going to get up. So he got off. And then two more policemen came in. He said, "Who is it?" And he was very angry about it. He said: "That is not new, I had trouble out of that thing before." So, he said: "Aren't you going to get up?" He didn't say anything to Mrs. Hamilton then. He just said it to me. He said: "Aren't you going to get up?" I said, "no." He saw Mrs. Hamilton but he was afraid to ask her to get up. He said, "If any of you are not gentlemen enough to give a lady a seat you should be put in jail, yourself." So, Mr. Harris, he got up and gave her a seat, and immediately got off the bus. He said, "You can have that seat, I am getting off." And so she taken his seat. So he asked me, if I was not going to get up. I said, "No, sir." I was crying then, I was very hurt because I didn't know that white people would act like that and I was crying. And he said, "I will have to take you off." So I didn't move. I didn't move at all. I just acted like a big baby. So he kicked me and one got on one side of me and one got the other arm and they just drug me out. And so I was very pitiful. It really hurt me to see that I have to give a person a seat, when all those colored people were standing and there were not any more vacant seats. I had never seen nothing like that. Well, they take me down, they put me in a car and one of the motorcycle men, he says, "I am sorry to have to take you down like this." So they put handcuffs on me through the window.GRAY: After that where did they take you?COLVIN: They taken me to the City Hall.GRAY: While you were at the City Hall, did anyone ask your age?COLVIN: Yes, they asked my age and everything.GRAY: Where did you go from the City Hall?COLVIN: I went to the City Jail.GRAY: Did they mention anything to you about taking you to the Detention Home? the Juvenile Court instead of the City Jail?COLVIN: Yes, sir. One of the policemen.GRAY: So they took you to the City Jail?COLVIN: Yes, sir.GRAY: How long were you there?COLVIN: It was over an hour.GRAY: What happened when you got to the City Jail?COLVIN: Well, all the people were staring at me, and asked me what was wrong. One of the policemen said, "She didn't want to sit back there with the Negroes!" And so he said: "If any more of them act like that--she was the only one that didn't want to move back." So they put me in the cell and locked the door.GRAY: And you stayed there until your parents came and made bond?COLVIN: Yes, sir.GRAY: What were you charged with?COLVIN: I was charged with violating the City Code, or certain sections of the City Code.GRAY: You were convicted?COLVIN: Yes, I was.WALTER KNABE, COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANTS: You have changed, that is, you and the other Negroes have changed your ideas since December 5, have you not?COLVIN: No, sir. We haven't changed our ideas. It has been in me ever since I was born.KNABE: But, the group stopped riding the busses for certain named things, that is correct, isn't it?COLVIN: For what?KNABE: For certain things that Reverend King said were the things you objected to?COLVIN: No, sir. It was in the beginning when they arrested me, when they seen how dirty they treated the Negro girls here, that they had began to feel like that all the time, though some of us just didn't have the guts to stand up.KNABE: Did you have a leader when you started this bus boycott?COLVIN: Did we have a leader? Our leaders is just we ourself. SER-DNA. Transcript of Record and Proceedings, _Browder_v. Gayle, May 11, 1956.Although she was ably defended by Fred Gray and Charles Langford, the city's only African American attorneys, two weeks after her arrest the juvenile court judge (first cousin of Alabama senator J. Lister Hill) found Colvin guilty of violating the state, not city, bus segregation law and of assault and battery for resisting arrest. He gave her probation. Gray and Langford appealed to the Montgomery Circuit Court, where on May 6 Judge Eugene Carter affirmed the assault conviction while dismissing the segregation code violation. His ruling prevented the lawyers from using Colvin's arrest as a test case to challenge the bus segregation laws, which in any event her parents did not want.The Colvin incident aroused the black community. The Citizens Coordinating Committee, led by businessman Rufus Lewis, issued an appeal to the "Friends of Justice and Human Rights." It denounced "certain legal and moral injustices incurred in the public transportation system" and offered the Colvin case as "an opportunity, in the spirit of democracy, and in the spirit of Christ, to deal courageously with these problems."[3]Robinson recalled that for several days "large numbers refused to ride the buses" in a spontaneous protest.[4] In a meeting of black delegates with city and bus company officials, Robinson reportedly threatened an organized boycott when the talk got heated.Partly because of Colvin's arrest and the heightened tensions that resulted, bus segregation emerged for the first time as an issue in a Montgomery city election that same month. All three city commission seats, including the mayor's, were contested. In late February E. D. Nixon's Progressive Democratic Association had sponsored a candidates' forum at the Ben Moore Hotel, the city's sole black-owned hotel. In this unprecedented interracial meeting, African American activists cast aside their customary deference and interrogated the white candidates about their stands on the "Negroes' Most Urgent Needs." They began with the bus situation. Their mimeographed statement advocated the WPC seating proposal that would maintain bus segregation but on a more equitable basis.Commission candidate Clyde Sellers, a former state representative and Alabama Highway Patrol head, exploited the black demands in a full-page newspaper advertisement, concluding that "I will not be intimidated for the sake of a block of negro votes." His overtly racial appeal enabled him narrowly to defeat the incumbent, racial moderate Dave Birmingham, forcing a runoff election. Sellers won the runoff after Birmingham withdrew abruptly for health reasons. Mayor Gayle, a commissioner for twenty years, was easily reelected. They were joined by newcomer Frank Parks, who had prevailed with the help of black voters.1. This edited testimony is taken from the official trial transcript of State of Alabama v. M. L. King, Jr., March 19-22, 1956, Montgomery County Circuit Court, CMCR-AMC. The judge was Eugene Carter. The chief defense attorneys were Fred D. Gray and Charles D. Langford.2. Ellen Levine, Freedom's Children (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1993), pp. 20-22.3. Quoted in Lamont H. Yeakey, "The Montgomery, Alabama, Bus Boycott, 1955-56" (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1979), pp. 238-39.4. Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It, ed. David J. Garrow (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1987), p. 42. Here Is The Questionnaire Given Me By E. D. Nixon at a Meeting With All Candidates, and a Negro group at the Ben Moore Hotel Negroes' Most Urgent Needs Following are a few of the most urgent needs of our people. Immediate attention should be given each of these. What is your stand toward them?1. The present bus situation. Negroes have to stand over empty seats of city buses, because the first ten seats are reserved for whites who sometime never ride. We wish to fill the bus from the back toward the front until all the seats are taken. This is done in Atlanta, Georgia, Mobile, Alabama and in most of our larger southern cities.2. Negro Representation on the Parks and Recreation Board. Our parks are in a deplorable condition. We have protested, yet nothing has been done toward improving them. Juvenile delinquency continues to increase. In many instances these children are not responsible. The city is. Nobody knows better than Negroes what their needs are.3. Sub-division for housing. Just recently a project for a sub-division for Negroes was presented before the City Commission for approval. Protests from whites and other objections prevented the development. There is no section wherein Negroes can expand to build decent homes. What of Lincoln Heights?4. Jobs for qualified Negroes. Certain civil service jobs are not open to Negroes, yet many are qualified. Negroes need jobs commensurate with their training. Everybody cannot teach.5. Negro representation on all boards affecting Negroes. Negroes are taxpayers; they are property owners or renters. They constitute about forty-six percent of the city's population. Many boards determine their destinies without any kind of representation whatsoever. Only Negroes are qualified to represent themselves adequately and properly.6. Congested areas, with inadequate or no fireplugs. Fire hazards are inviting.7. Lack of sewerage disposals makes it necessary to resort to out-door privies, which is a health hazard.8. Narrow streets, lack of curbing, unpaved streets in some sections. Immediate action should be taken on this traffic hazard.Gentleman, what is your stand on these issues? What will you do to improve these undemocratic practices? Your stand on these issues will enable us to better decide on whom we shall cast our ballot in the March election.Very truly yours,Montgomery Negroes Here Are My Answers: **In Answer To Question No. 1--**1--There is a state law which requires segregation of passengers on public conveyances. I feel that there should always be seats available for both races on our buses. **Questions Two and Five Are Inter-related and Here Is My Answer--**2-5--You have seen the candidates answers to these questions in the daily papers. Question No. 5 is just a follow up on question No. 2. If you appoint a negro to the parks and recreation board you have opened the way for negroes to be appointed on all of the other boards, which help govern our city. My answer was and is, "I would not recommend that the commission appoint a negro to the parks and recreation board, but I would gladly work with their representatives in an attempt to establish a negro park and expanded recreational facilities in Montgomery." **In Answer To Question No. Three--**3--I agree that the negroes of Montgomery do need a section of their own in which to build decent homes. But not in a section like Lincoln Heights, where they would be completely surrounded by housing developments occupied by white people. I am a firm believer in segregation as we now have it in Alabama, and the lack of adequate negro school facilities, in the Lincoln Heights area, would lead to dissatisfaction and dissention. I would be happy to try and help them locate a subdivision of their own, near more adequate negro school facilities--but never in Lincoln Heights. **Answering Question No. Four--**4--If the commission were to comply with this request it would be only a short time before negroes would be working along side of whites and whites along side of negroes, under the merit system, in our city hall. Our fire department, the nation's finest, under the leadership of Chief Bob Lampley, would soon be filled with negroes. I have always felt that if a man wanted a job bad enough he could go where the job, for which he is qualified, is available. There are places in the nation where civil service jobs for negroes in cities are available, but not in Montgomery. I will expend every effort to keep it that way. **Questions Six, Seven and Eight Are All Inter-related and Here Is My Answer--**6-7-8--Montgomery has done and is doing an excellent job in the field of slum clearance and public housing for the negroes. As one of your commissioners I will cooperate with the other commissioners in an attempt to complete this job and eliminate these hazards.I have answered these questions exactly the way I feel. I have many friends among the negroes of Montgomery and I will be fair and honest with them in all our contacts, yet I will not compromise my principles, not violate my Southern birthright to promise something I do not intend to do. I will not be intimidated for the sake of a block of negro votes.I come to you not seeking your votes with wild promises, but with a positive and constructive program, based on my training and experience in the fields of business and law enforcement. Montgomery Advertiser, March 20, 1955. Daybreak of Freedom | Home