LSC-Montgomery Resource Guides: Virtual Book Display: The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Civil Rights Era

“During the Montgomery bus boycott, we came together and remained unified for 381 days. It has never been done again. The Montgomery boycott became the model for human rights throughout the world.”

-Rosa Parks

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Montgomery Bus Boycott
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks boarded a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. When the bus reached its third stop, Ms. Parks was asked to surrender her seat to a white passenger. She refused and was arrested. The event inspired the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the first mass protest of the Civil Rights Movement. In turn, the Montgomery protest became the spark that lit countless torches throughout the South and beyond during the 1950s and 1960s.
Rosa Parks: The Path to Freedom
It has been only forty years since the fateful day that Mrs. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus, yet the chain of events that she set in motion has changed the world forever. In honor of this anniversary, Kingberry Productions (which produced The Freedom Train) has compiled a biography of this dynamic but quiet woman, whose demand for her civil rights led to the social changes of the sixties. This documentary contains an overview of the events that took place in Montgomery, Alabama: Mrs. Parks' arrest, the bus boycott and the segregation laws that were finally overturned. It also tells the story of the Rosa Parks that few people know -- the former seamstress whose life continues to be committed to social justice for all people.
Civil Rights: Oh, Freedom!
The inspiring story of the non-violent Civil Rights Movement, as it shared the struggle for Black equality, is narrated by Andrew Young. We witness the courage of African Americans like Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Fannie Lou Hamer as they boldly confronted racist oppression.
If We Protest Courageously...
This video discusses the desegregation, the Civil Rights Movement and changes in race relations in the United States after World War II.
Remembering Rosa Parks (Oct. 25, 2005)
This video, produced by MacNeil-Lehrer Productions, is a discussion with two people that personally knew Rosa Parks, who had recently passed away at the time of the recording.
Known for Single Act of Defiance, Rosa Parks Trained for Life Full of Action
What do you really know about the life and legacy of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks? Gwen Ifill talks with biographer Jeanne Theoharis, whose book 'The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks' offers a complex portrait of the woman best known for refusing to give up her seat on an Alabama bus in 1955.
They Were There: Remembering The Civil Rights Movement
Frontline figures in the Civil Rights Movement reflect on their experiences, their colleagues, and where America now stands on the issue of race in a series of NewsHour conversations and discussions. Included are conversations with Dorothy Height, Vernon Jordan, and John Lewis about their memoirs and remembrances of the March on Washington, Rosa Parks, and Hamilton Holmes. This collection also features a 1997 interview with Ruby Bridges, who in 1960, at 6-years old, became the first African American child to desegregate an elementary school.
Social Action: Part 6
Social Action interprets the relationship of social action and social movements to conflicting interests, change and power.
Awakenings 1954–1956: Eyes on the Prize—America’s Civil Rights Movement 1954–1985
Individual acts of courage inspire black Southerners to fight for their rights: Mose Wright testifies against the white men who murdered young Emmett Till, and Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. Distributed by PBS Distribution.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
NAACP member Rosa Parks was arrested after refusing to surrender her bus seat to a white man on the order of the driver. She was the catalyst for the plan to challenge the segregated bus system. The city held fast to its segragationist convictions.
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1957 Bus Boycott Segment 1 of 9
Archival film footage of an interview with Martin Luther King, Jr. takes place in King's Dexter Avenue Baptist Church on October 27, 1957. Host Martin Agronsky reviews events put in motion by Rosa Parks and the bus boycott organized by King.
A Change is Gonna Come
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on the bus. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. believes in nonviolent civil disobedience and calls for a boycott of the city buses. Marchers use the weapon of love. Buses become non-segregated. Distributed by PBS Distribution.
Montgomery Boycott - Segment 9 of 21
Learn about Rosa Parks' activist background and how her act of civil disobedience democratized the Civil Rights movement. Distributed by PBS Distribution.
Martin Luther King, Jr. on Non-Violence and Christian Love - Segment 2
Martin Luther King, Jr. discusses how the bus boycott in 1957 was non-violent expression of protest. The boycott was not just an economic squeeze, but a Christian, non-violent protest against false standards through segregation.
Interview with Rosa Parks
Interview with Rosa Parks conducted for Eyes on the Prize I. Discussion centers on life in Montgomery, her decision to refuse to comply with segregation on the bus line, and the bus boycott.
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott | Civil Rights Movement
Historians explain how Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott helped ignite the Civil Rights Movement.

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Brice, Anne, "The Montgomery bus boycott and the women who made it possible," February 11, 2020
People know about Rosa Parks, but what they might not know is that it was actually the behind-the-scenes organizing effort by the Women's Political Council, led by Jo Ann robinson, that made the boycott successful
History.com Editors, "Montgomery Bus Boycott," January 27, 2021
"The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a civil rights protest during which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating. The boycott took place from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956, and is regarded as the first large-scale U.S. demonstration against segregation.
Braden, Donna "Segregated Travel and the Uncommon Courage of Rosa Parks," February 5, 2018
A history of travel in the segregated south for African-Americans.
"The Montgomery Bus Boycott," April 5, 2016
Years before the boycott, Dexter Avenue minister Vernon Johns sat down in the "whites-only" section of a city bus. When the driver ordered him off the bus, Johns urged other passengers to join him. On March 2, 1955, a black teenager named Claudette Colvin dared to defy bus segregation laws and was forcibly removed from another Montgomery bus.
Adler, Margot "Before Rosa Parks, There Was Claudette Colvin," March 15, 2009
Few people know the story of Claudette Colvin: When she was 15, she refused to move to the back of the bus and give up her seat to a white person — nine months before Rosa Parks did the very same thing.
National Museum of African American Histoy & Culture, "Jo Ann Robinson: A Heroine of the Montgomery Bus Boycott," n.d.
The story of one of the organizers of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Blakemore, Erin "How Automobiles Helped Power the Civil Rights Movement," Feb. 28, 2020
Montgomery bus boycotters had a secret weapon: cars
Bennett, Brad "Journey to Justice," December 4, 2020
Celebrating the 65th anniversary of Montgomery Bus Boycott that sparked a civil rights movement.
Rumble, Taylor-Dior "Claudette Colvin: The 15-year-old who came before Rosa Parks," March 10, 2018
In March 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks defied segregation laws by refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin did exactly the same thing. Eclipsed by Parks, her act of defiance was largely ignored for many years. She herself didn't talk about it much, but she spoke recently to the BBC.
Braden, Donna "The Montgomery Bus Boycott in the News," February 17, 2021
How the Montgomery Bus Boycott was covered in the news at the time.

Rosa Parks Collection
The papers of Rosa Parks (1913-2005) span the years 1866-2006, with the bulk of the material dating from 1955 to 2000. The collection, which contains approximately 7,500 items in the Manuscript Division, as well as 2,500 photographs in the Prints and Photographs Division, documents many aspects of Parks's private life and public activism on behalf of civil rights for African Americans.
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. It was established by Act of Congress in 2003, following decades of efforts to promote and highlight the contributions of African Americans. To date, the Museum has collected more than 36,000 artifacts and nearly 100,000 individuals have become members. The Museum opened to the public on September 24, 2016, as the 19th and newest museum of the Smithsonian Institution.
National Civil Rights Museum
The National Civil Rights Museum traces the history of the civil rights movement in the United States from the 17th century to the present. The museum is built around the former Lorraine Motel, which was the site of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.
Stanford The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute
Sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks on 1 December 1955, the Montgomery bus boycott was a 13-month mass protest that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional.
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks
Biography of Rosa Parks
Travel Places of the Civil Rights Movement
This travel itinerary tells the powerful story of the centuries-long struggle for African Americans civil rights. While not intended to be an exhaustive exploration of all the sites associated with this history, this travel itinerary shows how the struggle for civil rights spanned all across the country. Some of the places where these seminal events occurred – the churches, schools, homes, and neighborhoods – are listed in the National Register of Historic Places and are included in this itinerary.
The Jack Rabin Collection on Alabama Civil Rights and Southern Activists
The Jack Rabin Collection on Alabama Civil Rights and Southern Activists is a compact but highly complex, multi-layered compilation of documents, sound recordings, and visual images. Some of its components, including copies of records of the Montgomery Improvements Association (MIA) and many hours of oral history of the renowned civil liberties lawyer Clifford Durr, complement major holdings in other American archives.
Alabama African American Civil Rights Heritage Sites Consortium
The Alabama African American Civil Rights Heritage Sites Consortium, Inc. is a collaboration among 20 historic places of worship, lodging and civic engagement that played significant roles in the African American struggle for freedom. While recent history focuses on the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, these institutions have been dedicated to improving the quality of Black life since Reconstruction.
Articles & Speeches by Civil Rights Movement Veterans Montgomery Bus Boycott
Links to historical articles and speeches about the Montgomery bus boycott.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
When Rosa Parks refused on the afternoon of Dec. 1, 1955, to give up her bus seat so that a white man could sit, it is unlikely that she fully realized the forces she had set into motion and the controversy that would soon swirl around her.

In Black America Podcast: Heroes of the Civil Rights Movement: Views from the Front Line – Part I
On this edition of In Black America, producer/host John L. Hanson Jr. presents highlights of the Civil Rights Summit marking the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Pt. 2. By: Stuff you missed in history class.
Rosa's arrest for breaking bus segregation laws catalyzed the Montgomery Bus Boycott, one of the keystones in the American Civil Rights Movement. It was widely covered in the national media, which brought more attention to the struggle for equal rights.
Before Rosa Parks, A Teenager Defied Segregation On An Alabama Bus
Rosa Parks is well-known for her refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger on a public bus in Montgomery, Ala., in December 1955. But Parks' civil rights protest did have a precedent: Fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin, a student from a black high school in Montgomery, had refused to move from her bus seat nine months earlier.
Fresh Air' Remembers Civil Rights Leader Rep. John Lewis
Lewis, who died July 17, grew up the son of sharecroppers. He later became an associate of Martin Luther King and co-led the 1965 civil rights march in Selma, Ala. Originally broadcast in 2009.
Claudette Colvin
We discuss the beginnings of Claudette’s life, her first impression on segregation in a retail store, the bus incident, her friendship with Jeremiah Reeves, her part in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Browder vs. Gayle, and the hardships she endured after the end to bus segregation.
Rosa Parks
This podcast is about Rosa parks and her history of being part of the Montgomery bus boycott.
Jo Ann Robinson | Legendary Black Woman Unhidden
Without Jo Ann Robinson, we might have never known the names of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., and we, Black people that is, may still be sitting in the back of the bus. This episode is a little bit different in that I actually do not know how Jo Ann Robinson died. I know the magnificence of how she lived, and I know that she is often forgotten in the story of how we’ve always fought to get free. Jo Ann Robinson was a beacon to all freedom fighters who do their work in the background, join me in seeing her in her deserved place - in the light.
Before Rosa Parks, There Was Claudette Colvin
Few people know the story of Claudette Colvin: When she was 15, she refused to move to the back of the bus and give up her seat to a white person — nine months before Rosa Parks did the very same thing.
The Politics Of Passing 1964's Civil Rights Act
Martin Luther King may not have had a vote in Congress, but he and the movement he helped lead were integral to getting the civil rights bill introduced. Among other things, the act outlawed discrimination in public accommodations — including restaurants, hotels and motels — ending the era of legal segregation in those places.

Virtual Book Display: The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Civil Rights Era

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