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Women's Political Council (WPC) of Montgomery
The WPC sought to increase the political leverage of the black community by promoting civic involvement, increasing voter registration, and lobbying city officials to address racist policies. The group’s work expanded to include public protest in 1955, when it helped initiate the Montgomery bus boycott. -
Arrest of Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for disorderly conduct for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. -
Call to Black Leaders
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and black ministers and leaders met at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and agreed to publicize the 5 December boycott. -
Trial of Rosa Parks
Civil Rights leader E. D. Nixon bailed her out of jail, joined by white friends Clifford Durr, an attorney, and his wife, Virginia. Rosa did not win her case, which went to trial in the Recorder’s Court of the city of Montgomery on December 5. She was fined $14.00, including court costs. Her attorney Fred Gray appealed, but lost on a technicality. -
The Montgomery Improvement Association
The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was formed in Montgomery, Alabama to direct the black boycott of the city’s segregated buses. Martin Luther King, Jr., was elected its president, and Rosa Parks served on the executive board of directors. She also worked briefly as a dispatcher for the MIA Transportation Committee. In this capacity, she was responsible for connecting people who needed rides with the drivers of private cars and church station wagons. -
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Mass Protest
13-month mass protest of black citizens staying off buses -
Browder v. Gayle, Class Action Lawsuit
NAACP state field secretary W. C. Patton met with Montgomery branch president Robert L. Matthews, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Fred Gray to discuss the bus boycott. Rosa authorized the NAACP to process her case. Gray, the Montgomery Improvement Association’s chief counsel, agreed to represent her, with Thurgood Marshall, Robert L. Carter, and Clifford Durr advising. -
Injunctions Obtained
City officials obtained injunctions against the boycott and indicted over 80 boycott leaders under a 1921 law prohibiting conspiracies that interfered with lawful business. King was tried and convicted on the charge and ordered to pay $500 or serve 386 days in jail in the case State of Alabama v. M. L. King, Jr. Despite this resistance, the boycott continued. -
Browder v. Gayle Affirmation
The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed Browder v. Gayle and struck down laws requiring segregated seating on public buses. -
Browder v. Gayle, Class Action Lawsuit Cont..
Fred Gray filed a federal lawsuit, Browder v. Gayle, on behalf of five female plaintiffs: Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, Jeanetta Reese, Claudette Colvin, and Mary Louise Smith. He omitted Rosa due to a technicality. -
Alabama Anti-Boycott Act
A Montgomery grand jury indicted Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., E. D. Nixon, and eighty-six other bus boycott participants for violating the Alabama Anti-Boycott Act of 1921. King was the first to be brought to trial. He was convicted on March 22, but Judge Eugene Carter suspended his $500 fine pending appeal. The other cases were ultimately dismissed. -
Browder v. Gayle Rulling
The federal district court ruled in Browder v. Gayle that bus segregation was unconstitutional.