In December of 1955, a young Alabama pastor who had been on the job for just a year agreed to lead a citywide bus boycott. One of the reasons that much older and more experienced activists and leaders picked the young clergyman for this position was because being new in town, he hadn’t yet had a chance to be intimidated or co-opted by the local power structure.
Today, as we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr., we know him as one of the greatest heroes of American history–master orator, Nobel laureate, and martyr who gave his life for the cause of racial justice. He is so iconic, that it is easy to think of him as superhuman, and an impossible role model whom we could never live up to. But that wasn’t the case in 1955.
When the Montgomery bus boycott began, King was just 26 years old. He was known in the local area as a charismatic preacher, but was an unlikely figure to lead a world-changing movement.
Meanwhile, the world in which he lived was very different than our world today. Racism was the law in Alabama; the bus boycott took place because local law required black people to sit at the back of the bus, and, if the bus was full, to give up their seats to any white passengers that boarded. Rosa Parks’ crime was not giving up her seat because a white man boarded her bus and sat down in her row; at the time, it was illegal for white and black people to sit next to each other on the bus.
Consider that fact when someone cites the 1950s as a “golden age” for America. It was illegal for white and black people to sit next to each other on the bus.
It was a different, and far more unjust time. In fact, the Montgomery bus boycott didn’t even ask that the buses be integrated, just that black passengers be treated courteously, that passengers would be seated first-come, first-served (with black people still being required to sit at the back of the bus) and that black bus drivers be hired for some routes where the passengers were overwhemingly black. Think about how small that ask was.
As the boycott progressed, the segregationists and white supremacists tried to intimidate the boycott organizers with violence. King’s house was firebombed, as were four black churches in Montgomery. Remember, these racists employed deadly force because they wanted to preserve the legal right to force black bus riders to give up their seats to white bus riders.
Nor was this simply a matter of vigilante justice. King was officially arrested and jailed for role as boycott leader, though this backfired by bringing national attention to what was a local protest. When Americans from around the country found out how Alabamans were treating non-violent protestors who were simply choosing not to ride a bus system that discriminated against them, many were horrified.
Nearly a year later, the Supreme Court ruled that Alabama’s segregation laws for buses were unconstitutional, bringing the boycott to an end. But this wasn’t the end of the racist violence.
Someone fired a shotgun into King’s home. Snipers shot at the buses, in one case wounding a pregnant passenger. On January 10, 1957, racists firebombed five more black churches and the home of a white clergyman, Robert Graetz, who had spoken out in favor of desegregation. But these disgraceful and evil acts failed, and Montgomery’s buses were integrated.
The Montgomery bus boycott was the beginning of Martin Luther King Jr.’s story, not the end. He co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and continued to lead organized, non-violent protests against segregation and racism. He was arrested 29 times. He led the March on Washington, and delivered one of the greatest speeches in American history. Ten years after the bus boycott, the movement King helped set in motion had won key victories like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, ending the system of segregation in the South.
America had changed for the better in ways that the vast majority of people in 1955 couldn’t have imagined. America in 1965 was far from perfect, but it was far closer to living up to its greatest ideals–that all people are created equal, and possess the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
When people wonder what they could possibly do to make a difference in the world, when they feel despair over racism and injustice, they should think about the inexperienced 26-year-old pastor who defied the powerful leaders and entrenched (and legal) racism in his city and ended up changing the world.
Remember that while King was a powerful orator and charismatic leader, his cause didn’t succeed because of those facts. It succeeded because of the courage and perseverance of the ordinary people that responded to his leadership, and because of the allies who saw the injustices inflicted on others, and decided to oppose those wrongdoings.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day (established by President Ronald Reagan in 1983) is one of two official “National Days of Service”, along with September 11. I hope that you found a way to celebrate this holiday that resonated with your and your loved ones. But in addition, I hope that you also take away this lesson from the life of Dr. King: You have more power than you think. And when you get together with others to fight injustice, you have the power to change the world for the better.