How the Montgomery Bus Boycott can drive more purpose into the new social justice movement

" They knew why they walked, and the knowledge was evident in the way they carried themselves. And as I watched them I knew that there was nothing more majestic than the determined courage of individuals willing suffer and sacrifice for their freedom and dignity."

The economic "Black out" proposed for this week has generated much discussion from some who are in adamant support and others in opposition, if not to the boycott itself then to what they suggest is an action too short in its proposed duration or incomplete in explanation of its potential impact.

In discussing the "Black out," some people mention the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, the most effective economic social action conducted at the start of what became the Civil Rights Movement.

The Black citizens, business and religious leaders planned that boycott of the Montgomery bus system spontaneously, between a Friday and Sunday, after hearing of Mrs. Rosa Parks arrest on December 1, 1955 for not giving up her seat to a white man. The boycott was planned for the first work day of the following week, which was Monday, December 5, 1955.

Like the proposed "Black out" Friday, November 2nd of this year, the 1955 boycott was generated by outrage at acts of “over-prosecution” and social injustice, at that time represented by Mrs. Parks’ arrest, which was then the latest social injustice in a long series of injustices that Black citizens had suffered in Montgomery, and across the country.

It is instructive to consider that over the course of three days the Montgomery organizers put together a plan, publicized the action, and successfully carried off the first day of the boycott, even in the face of expressed doubts about the duration of the boycott and potential impact of the plan.

The story of that year-long boycott is told in Stride Toward Freedom, a memoir of the nearly day-to-day activities of the Montgomery bus boycott, written by a young Baptist preacher elected to the movement's leadership, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The story is a must read for Black Americans, all Americans really, a view from the first hand account of Dr. King how a system of entrenched discrimination sabotages the social and economic progress of its victims, and how a people unified by higher ideals of self-determination and dignity overcame legalized oppression through sustained and determined effort.

It may be surprising to some that over the harried weekend of planning, Dr. King struggled with the idea of "boycott." At that time, some persons compared the proposed bus boycott with similar boycotts conducted throughout the South by the racists White Citizen Councils with the purpose of denying goods and services to the Black community--and Whites of good will. Dr. King was certain that their discrimination was evil but questioned, as some do today, whether participating in a boycott was not as immoral as bigoted White groups. Was a boycott a negative action, when what was intended was a positive action, “to give birth to justice and freedom, and to urge men to cooperate with the law of the land...,” he asked.

He reconciled his struggle in recalling Henry David Thoreau's “Essay on Civil Disobedience.” The answer for Dr. King was non-cooperation. He wrote:

“When oppressed people willingly accept their oppression they only serve to give the oppressor a convenient justification for his acts. ... So, in order to be true to one's conscience and true to God, a righteous man has no alternative but to refuse to cooperate with an evil system. This I felt was the nature of our action. From this moment on I conceived of our movement as an act of massive noncooperation. From then on I rarely used the word, "boycott."

Finally, Monday, December 5th arrived. Dr. King and the organizers waited to see what would happen. Would the Black Montgomery citizens unify, would the boycott be a success?

Dr. King and the other Black leaders had hoped for about 60% cooperation of the people. Early on Monday morning, Dr. King wrote, he and Mrs. King were up and dressed by 5:30am, waiting to see the first buses of the morning ride by their street. Soon, looking out their living room window, they saw an empty bus ride by--a bus normally filled with domestic workers.

"I jumped in my car and for almost an hour I cruised down every major street and examined every passing bus. During this hour at the peak of morning traffic, I saw no more than eight Negro passengers riding the buses." Jubilant, Dr. King said he realized that instead of 60% cooperation the Black community of Montgomery was participating at nearly 100%.

One of the most powerful passages of Stride Toward Freedom is Dr. King's description of the beautiful sight of men and women participating on that first day of the "massive noncooperation," which was sustained through the rest of 1955:

"During the rush hours the sidewalks were crowded with laborers and domestic workers, many of them well past middle age, trudging patiently to their jobs and home again, sometimes as much as twelve miles. They knew why they walked, and the knowledge was evident in the way they carried themselves. And as I watched them I knew that there was nothing more majestic than the determined courage of individuals willing to suffer and sacrifice for their freedom and dignity."

Reviewing our past efforts in the wake of new social actions is educational, unifying and inspiring. In the next few days, as people plan their participation, we recommend that participants in the "Black out" get together and read aloud selections from our historical record of social protests. This activity will frame the current purpose with historical perspective, inspire unity, strengthen resolve and help to ensure sustained success in this new effort and those we engage in in the future.

Doesn't have to be a physical gathering. Send quotes by email, text message or just pick up the telephone. Each one, reach one; each one, teach one, our history, our inherited legacy, and our responsibility to one another.

For this week, we recommend Stride Toward Freedom, the first book selection for BookTalk, our online reading group focused on social action texts. We will post a date for an online discussion of the book soon.

Send us your recommedations for other books to include in the quarterly BookTalk discussion.

Peace

Jena Six: “Shot heard ‘round the world”

Watching the Jena rally broadcast on television and described on the radio raised much to compare and contrast with social action protests of the past. The coverage seemed a strange hybrid of a party atmosphere—celebrating the presence of R&B groups--and the more sobering and focused purpose of social protest against institutional injustice in the American legal system. What also caught my attention was that repeatedly commentators remarked how the great outpouring of support for the so-called "Jena Six"—at least 50,000 people attended the rally—all began last fall at the beginning of the 2006 school year around a question about who could sit under a shade tree.

Many persons interviewed on radio and television said that this outpouring of support from across America—from whites and blacks--was not just a one day event. It marked the beginning of a movement, something of a revolution. If this is true then the Black student who asked the Jena high school principal if there was any reason that he could not sit under a shade tree "reserved" for white students essentially issued the equivalent of the "shot heard 'round the world" in this 21st century. The "shot heard 'round the world" (Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Concord Hymn”) refers to the initial shot fired in the battle that ignited the American Revolution. The premise of the student’s question shook the core of Black America. The fact that our children are still denied such basic human rights, that they are still instructed in a system of social inferiority, rightly exploded complacency and ignited a call to action in many Black Americans. Nearly one year later, the world saw Americans of all backgrounds rise up to reject this despicable social residual of this nation’s segregated past.

After hearing from the principal that he could sit anywhere on school grounds, Kenneth Purvis and his friends stood under the shade tree. White students responded by hanging three nooses from the tree. Kenneth Purvis said in an interview that after seeing the nooses, he and others went back to stand under the tree again.

These students acted in the spirit of resistance which is Black America's legacy and responsibility, from early enslavement through the Sixties and beyond. Resistance is a core value of Black American culture. "Resist, resist, resist," sang veteran social revolutionist poet Sonia Sanchez to an audience in New Haven just a few months ago.

Entrenched segregation in Jena shocked Black America but did not faze white Jena residents. The white adults of Jena who say that their town is not racist should be alarmed however that their children are. (How far does the "white" shade tree grow from its root?) At least three white Jena youth not only harbor racist attitudes, but situated themselves in the appalling historical context of American racial bigotry by hanging three nooses, thus invoking the heinous reign of terror whites levied against black men. (See 100 Years of Lynching by Ralph Ginsburg)

The white students’ actions represent an attempt to threaten and intimidate based on racial supremacy, essentially an imbalance in power.

Taking a stand by sitting under the tree was the bravest and most affirming action those young people could take. They acted in the affirming tradition of forbearers such as Dred Scott, Rosa Parks and many others whose resistance contributed to dismantling legalized segregation and discrimination in America.

They challenged institutional racist attitudes, previously sanctioned by the school administration and exercised by their peers. Resistance was an imperative not only for their present school days but also for their future. What would be their prospects to obtain social equality in Jena five or ten years after high school, when a white Jena graduate would then be a supervisor in a position to hire them? The roles of segregation, submission and inferiority established in high school will carry over implicitly, if not explicitly, into work situations and all aspects of social order.

To allow this Jim Crow situation to dominate the small patch of ground in front of the high school is to sanction Jim Crow across the land. As Dr. King said again and again, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

There is much more to examine and build upon based on the sincere response of more than 50,000 black Americans, and Americans of all races, who came to Jena to protest injustice, to support the cause. There is much to be proud of in the youth who led the way.

Support the Jena 6!