Court Orders Montgomery, Alabama, Buses Desegregated
On this day, a federal court in Alabama ordered the city of Montgomery buses to be desegregated. The Browder v. Gayle ruling held that the segregated buses violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the decision on December 17, 1956.
Rosa Parks is justly famous for launching the Montgomery Bus Boycott by refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery, Alabama, bus on December 1, 1955. And although the boycott, which began on December 5, 1955, is one of the iconic events of the civil rights movement, in fact the buses were desegregated by a lawsuit that began several months earlier. The plaintiffs in the case were 15-year-old Claudette Colvin, the first person arrested, Aurelia Browder (see the link below), Susie McDonald, Mary Louise Smith, and Jeanette Reese. That suit resulted in the court decision that desegregated the Montgomery buses.
The initial District Court case was heard by a three-judge panel. One of the two judges in the majority was Frank M. Johnson, one of the most important judges in the history of the civil rights movement. Browder v. Gayle was the first of many important decisions expanding civil rights and civil liberties. For more on Judge Johnson, go to October 22, 1955; August 16, 1977; and July 23, 1999.
Learn more about “The Women Before Rosa Parks”: http://www.tolerance.org/article/browder-v-gayle-women-rosa-parks
Read about Aurelia Browder here
Watch a documentary on the Montgomery bus boycott: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_VlnhfNQZE
Read: Stewart Burns, Daybreak of Freedom: The Montgomery Bus Boycott (1997)
Learn more about Claudette Colvin: http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_colvin_claudette_1939/
Read about the Frank M. Johnson Institute here
Visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture here