Waking Jonah

James Corbett discusses the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the nonviolent, grass-roots effort that propelled Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement into the public consciousness.

Show: The Corbett Report
Full Podcast: Episode #107 – Lessons in Resistance: Non-compliance
Date: 11/8/09
Host: James Corbett
Topics: Rosa Parks lost her case and was convicted of violating the segregated seating laws; Black leaders formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) as an extension of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and elected Martin Luther King, Jr. as its president; King gave a speech at a church that sparked the black residents’ collective outrage into a grass-roots movement that sustained the boycott; The bus boycott followed King’s credo of nonviolent resistance; On February 1st, 1956, the MIA filed a federal suit against bus segregation in the names of 4 black women; In June a federal court ruled segregated seating unconstitutional–it was appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld the ruling; On December 20th, 1956, when the federal ruling took effect, an integrated group of bus boycott supporters (including King) rode the city buses; The Montgomery Bus Boycott had implications that reached far beyond the desegregation of public buses; The protest propelled the civil rights movement into national consciousness, and Martin Luther King, Jr. into the public eye; In the words of King: “We have gained a new sense of dignity and destiny. We have discovered a new and powerful weapon… nonviolent resistance.”

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James Corbett