The Montgomery Bus Boycott is often considered to be the event that started the Civil Rights Movement and the emergence of Martin Luther King Jr. as the premiere Civil Rights activist. People are also drawn to Rosa Parks, the innocent 42-year-old women who ignited the movement by refusing to give up her seat on Dec. 1, 1955. Many people, however, are ignorant of the countless events leading up to the boycott and the numerous individuals who made it successful. Most would consider the major movers behind the boycott to be the African American ministers, such as King, who rose to Parks' defense and organized the boycott, which successfully ended segregation on public transit. However, in reality, African American women were the true leaders of the movement, and Rosa Parks was anything but an innocent and random participant.
Most people are aware of the image above. On December 1, Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus. She took a seat in an area referred to as "no man's land," because it was not considered to be black or white. The bus driver, James F. Blake, whom Parks had a run in with in 1943, saw her sitting there and asked her to move. Parks refused and Blake had her arrested. Following her trial on December 5, which resulted in a guilty verdict for breaking segregation laws, five thousand or more African Americans gathered at the Holt Street Baptist Church and were introduced to the leader of the bus boycott that would soon begin. His name was Martin Luther King. King was thrown into the leadership role by E.D. Nixon, who despite being relatively unknown, had a clear talent for public speaking. Rosa Parks was also introduced to the crowd, but she remained silent. Based on her silence, many would presume that Parks was a random participant, who unknowingly kick-started a year-long boycott. In reality, Rosa Parks was a secretary for the NAACP and was considered to be E.D. Nixon's best investigator of crimes against women. She was anything but a random participant.
Rosa Parks' title of secretary doesn't accurately convey what she did for the NAACP. Parks was sent all over the Jim Crow South investigating instances of rape against black women by white men. Women, such as Recy Taylor (pictured above, seated on the left), were preyed upon and brutally raped by white men, and in almost every case, without consequence. The perpetrators of these crimes were often acquitted by an all-white jury and a white judge. Parks was tasked with gathering as much information as possible of the crime so it could be brought to the attention of the public. It was the decades of sexual violence against women that brought upon the Montgomery Bus Boycott, not the event on December 1.
Violence on the buses was mostly directed at African American women. Before Parks' stand against Blake, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin and 18-year-old Mary Louise Smith made similar stands against Montgomery bus segregation but were not rallied behind like Parks was. The reason was purely political. E.D. Nixon knew he needed a near flawless individual to rally behind if the boycott was to work. In the rape cases, the slightest flaw in the character of the victim was brought to the forefront, even if it was false. In Recy Taylor's case, she was accused of being a prostitute even though she was not. Colvin was a 15-year-old, pregnant high school student and Smith's father was an alcoholic. Although these said nothing about the character of these women, opponents would jump all over it. Rosa Parks was the perfect fit for Nixon. Although she was a member of NAACP, very little dirt could be brought up against her.
The actions of Martin Luther King, Ralph Abernathy, and E.D. Nixon may have been in the public's eye during the year-long boycott, but it was the actions of African American women such as Rosa Parks, Claudette Colvin, Mary Louise Smith, Jo Ann Robinson, and many others who were able to make it successful. The male ministers took the lead role in an effort to defend their women, an action that had been denied to them by the violent white men. Although the boycott led to the desegregation of public transportation, it did not end the violence against women. African American women would continue to be the victims of rape and other acts of violence while their attackers remained at large. Violence against women was one of the most brutal and prevalent behaviors during the period of Jim Crow, but it is also the least discussed.
Information from this article and its inspiration from Danielle McGuire's "At the Dark End of the Street."
