House Honors 50th Anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott - Women's Congressional Policy Institute

On December 6, the House approved, by voice vote, a resolution (H. Con. Res. 273) recognizing and honoring the 50th anniversary of the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott and its historical significance to the United States. Sponsored by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), the resolution contains a number of findings, including:

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, an African American seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, was arrested for refusing to obey a bus driver’s order to give up her seat on a city bus for a White passenger boarding the bus, as required by city ordinance;
Outrage over the arrest of Rosa Parks initiated a meeting that weekend between the Reverend Ralph Abernathy, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Jo Ann Robinson, who was the head of the Women’s Political Council, and E.D. Nixon, who was the Montgomery official for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, also known as the NAACP;
This meeting resulted in the announcement of a large-scale boycott against Montgomery city bus lines;
Through nonviolent means and the support of ministers and African American and White citizens alike, the Montgomery bus boycott and the beginning of the civil rights movement gained national attention;
Rosa Parks became and remains an icon of pride and dignity, establishing a standard that has continued through the civil rights movement; and
The Montgomery bus boycott ended after the United States Supreme Court, on November 13, 1956, upheld a Federal district court ruling declaring segregation on buses unconstitutional.

Rep. Rogers expressed his “hope that this resolution will honor all those who participated in the boycott and provide our Nation another opportunity to learn from its past.” He added, “Rosa Parks may not be with us today to witness this resolution, but I am comforted in knowing her legacy and that all of those who helped make the boycott a success will live on for generations to come.”

Explaining that “the catalyst for the success of the Montgomery bus boycott is the fact that some 40,000 Black citizens of Montgomery decided not to ride the bus for 381 days,” Rep. Diane Watson (D-CA) stated, “It was a defining moment in our Nation’s history. The heroic and nonviolent actions of many people…led ultimately to a historic U.S. Supreme Court ruling.” She concluded by saying, “As this body honors and recalls a truly historic event in our Nation, let us also not forget that much still remains to be done to ultimately fulfill the legacy and the dreams of those thousands of Americans who participated in the Montgomery bus boycott.”