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Montgomery Bus Boycott: Montgomery Improvement Association
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On February 1, 1956, the Montgomery Improvement Association filed suit in the United States District Court challenging the constitutionality of bus segregation. In the same month, Martin Luther King and more than 90 others were arrested for conspiring to conduct a boycott. Dr. King's trial and conviction received nationwide attention, and made him a national figure.
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In terms of participation, the bus boycott was an immediate success. Virtually all of the African-Americans who formerly patronized the bus service now walked, arranged carpools or found other means of transportation. Despite the strong participation in the boycott and the financial hardship experienced by the bus company, the laws were not changed. The Montgomery Improvement Association filed suit in federal court on behalf of those discriminated against by the bus service. On June 2, 1956, a federal court ruled for the Montgomery Improvement Association and declared segregated bus service to be unconstitutional. The ruling was appealed to the United States Supreme Court who, on November 13, 1956, upheld the lower court's findings.
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The Montgomery Improvement Association organized the bus boycott in that Alabama town. Citizens involved in the boycott would gather in churches -- which could hold large numbers of people -- to share information, gather strength, hear from the movement's leaders, and raise their voices together in song.
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An outraged black community formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to organize a boycott of the city bus system. Partly to forestall rivalries among local community leaders, citizens turned to a recent arrival to Montgomery, Martin Luther King Jr., pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.
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After Parks lost her case and was convicted of violating the segregated seating laws, black leaders met again to organize an extension of the bus boycott. To this end, they formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), and elected King as its president. That evening, 7000 blacks crowded into Holt Street Baptist Church, where King addressed and inspired the audience with his words: "There comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression." Even as the protesters and black leaders were confronted with escalating violence, they maintained both nonviolent resistance and their exhausting day-to-day schedule without public transportation. In June, a federal court ruled segregated seating unconstitutional, and the case went on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court under the case name Browder v. Gayle.
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Montgomery Improvement Association