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Civil Disobedience - Coggle Diagram
Civil Disobedience
Montgomery Bus Boycott
- Rosa Parks, a 42 year old African American woman caught a bus home from work on 1 December 1955
- She refused to give up her seat to a standing white man in the overcrowding bus
- Parks was arrested for disobeying the municipal rule which made bus segregation compulsory
- News of her arrest spread through the African American community
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- The aim of the bus boycott was not planned to end bus segregation, but to stop African Americans from having to give up their seats to white passengers
- On Monday 5 December 1955, 90% of African Americans who usually took the bus decided to use other methods of transport
- Rosa Parks was found guilty or violating the segregation law of the Montgomery City Code and fined $14
- Newly developed organization, the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was formed. Dr Martin Luther King Jr became the leader. He encouraged African Americans to support the boycott. He believed that after brutal years of oppression, "we had no choice but to protest".
- Slogan: 'Don't ride the bus today, don't ride for freedom'
- African Americans comprised 75% of bus users in Montgomery, so the boycott impacted the bus companies financially
- However, they still refused to give in
- In November 1956, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the MIA for desegregation
- The boycott ended on 20 December 1956, when the bus companies agreed to allow all bus travelers the same rights to any vacant seats
- Professor Jo Ann Robinson from the all-black State college began to organize a one day bus boycott
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- Driver James F. Blake asked her and 3 African Customers to move for a standing white man
- In 1957, King joined members of the clergy to form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
- SCLC
- began a campaign of 'direct action'
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- boycotts: withdraw from commercial or social relations with (a country, organization, or person) as a punishment or protest.
- demonstrations: action by a mass group/collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause or people partaking in a protest against a cause of concern
- marches: occasion when you can express opposition by marching (usually on some government institution) without a license.
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Sit-ins
- 1960: King's call for civil disobedience led to sit ins
- Sit-in: form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change
- Students in Greensboro, North Carolina began these at 'whites only' cafeteria
Definition: the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government.
- Martin Luther King admired the non-violent protests of Mohandas K. Gandhi in 1920's India
- Gandhi encouraged the Indian people to protest against the British Raj
Encouraged non-violent non-cooperation
- Similar to Gandhi, King advocated civil disobedience through non-violence
Similar methods of protest throughout the Southern states were utilized, such as
- Swim-ins at pools
- Library read-ins
- Cinema watch-ins
- Freedom Rides
Key figures/groups involved
- Martin Luther King Jr
- Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
- Raymond Parks
- Rosa Parks
- Jo Ann Robinson
- Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA)
- Aimed to end segregation in the Deep South