Martin luther King

            The National Association for the advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) was one of the first groups set up to fight for equal rights for African Americans and they were involved in various civil rights protests. One of the protests was to end segregation on buses and trains. The Supreme Court declared segregation unconstitutional in 1952. Then in 1954 there was a similar judgement for Interstate buses. But in the Deep South, the states carried on with their own policy of transport segregation. On the buses white people sat at the front and African Americans sat at the back, then when the bus was crowded the African Americans which were sitting near the front of the bus had to by law give up their seat for any white people which were standing. If African Americans were to disobey the transport segregation laws then they were arrested and fined. On 1st December 1955 an African American lady called Rosa Parks had finished a hard day at work as an assistant to a tailor and was travelling home on the bus, and the bus was busy. She was asked to get up from her seat so a white gentleman could sit down but she refused. It was after her arrest that Martin Luther King .
             Began To organize bus protests against the segregation in Montgomery. It was decided that all African Americans would refuse to use public transport until the segregation laws were lifted. The African Americans involved in the protest were harassed and intimidated and Martin Luther King was arrested and his house was fire bombed, despite this the protest continued. The black community of Montgomery walked to work or had a lift from the very few black people that owned cars in Montgomery, this carried on for 13 months until the bus company .
             were forced to integrate because of the loss of money and also the Supreme Court made the decision. This inspired Martin Luther King to write a book called "Stride towards Freedom" the book included information on the Montgomery Riots and how non violence and direct action was the way forward within the Civil Rights movement.