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MLK and Montgomery

 

            What Was Martin Luther Kings Role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott?.
             The Montgomery bus boycott started on 1 December 1955. Rosa Parks, a former NAACP secretary refused to give up her seat to a white man on the local bus, having been thrown off the bus and arrested the black community decided to act. The NAACP had previously talked about a major protest about the segregation of buses, if a suitable incident could be found this was the incident as Rosa Parks was a respected member of the local community. With one of the Baptist churches acting as a base the black community arranged a boycott of the buses. .
             The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was set up to organise the boycott and to negotiate with the authorities. King was asked to be president of the association, mainly because, he was relatively new in Montgomery having just arrived as a Minister for The Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, this meant that he was neutral when it came to the rumours, gossip, cliques, groups and opinions that had formed over the years. .
             Kings was an organisational role in Montgomery as president of the MIA he was responsible for sorting out any transportation problems that the Negroes had. King had incredible speech making abilities and was able to hold an audiences attention for long periods of time. As a preacher and the son of a preacher he had the black southern preacher tradition, he was very passionate about what he was saying and you could tell he believed it. .
             King decided that no charge would be made for the car pools that were set up to help blacks with their transportation problems, but if people wanted to give a donation to the MIA then this would suffice. King managed to get funding from many different sources for the bus boycott, these included the NAACP who although at first were sceptical about what the boycott would achieve did held the MIA with funding.
             Kings speaking ability was one of the main things that kept the people of Montgomery going during the boycott.


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