Montgomery bus boycott
Describe the causes and consequences of a historical event
What were the causes of a historical event you have studied this year?
How were the people or groups in society affected by this event?

The Montgomery bus boycott in December 1955 – June 1956 was a significant event that triggered the advancement of the whole black civil rights movement in the United States. It influenced a number of uprisings and inspired many individuals and groups to stand up for their rights and achieve complete equality between races – whites and blacks. There are several factors that caused the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, they are - the segregation that caused the enforcement of Jim Crow laws in the south and the discrimination against blacks which resulted in the desire for change by the national association for the advancement of coloured people (NAACP). But the main cause that sparked it all is the action of one black woman, Rosa parks who refused to give her seat in the bus for a white patron in 1955. In response to the successful boycott many Negro’s lives changed for the better and the desegregation of buses in Alabama and every other state was enforced. The boycott also resulted in the rise of an important individual in the black civil rights movement- martin Luther king Jr.

The bus boycott in Montgomery was mainly caused by the Jim Crow laws and the legal doctrine separate but equal. Montgomery Alabama in 1955 is one of the most segregated states in all of America. Black African American in every state especially in the south lived in fear of racial discrimination inflicted by the whites. Many whites have long decades of hatred to the black which dates back since the time of African slavery. In the early 1700s Africans were stolen from their homes in Africa and transported to the southern states in America to be sold as slaves. There they work in harsh condition and also is tortured if they refuse to do work not until 1865 after the civil war ended. Abraham Lincoln ordered the abolishment of the slavery. Even though slavery was abolished, whites still thought Negros as people lower than them, dirty and inferior. Because of the building tension between races segregation was introduced. Segregation was a constitutional law to calm down the tension and separate the races but still putting them as “equal”. Although they are both separated negros are still tartgeted by racial discrimination. In 1896 black citizens tried to appeal to he court the issue of segregation and integration of trains. Many tried to abolish segretion and integrate but all of them failed because of the whites high status in society. because of the growing revolt of the blacks the jim crow laws was introduced. Jim crow laws is a set of customs and laws that enforces racial segregation and allows racial discrimination. Jim crow laws strengthened segregation and was used everywhere from public facilities and even transport. In buses blacks are expected to move to the back of the bus or stand up for a white patron or else they will be fine, put to jail or are faced by white supporters of the jim crow laws. The discrimination brought by the jim crow laws added to the trigger that started the Montgomery bus boycott.

The growing inequality because of the jim crow laws resulted in the formation of national association of aadvancement for coloured people (NAACP). The NAACP started to challenge the real equality of separate but equal. In 1954 NAACP supported the case of a black family who wanted to integrate schools. The supreme court ruled separate but equal unconstitutional. This was the first time jim crow law