That. The things you do for your, asset youll do anything reasonable. I think its in that book but typically you give the money, but not enough so that they can expose themselves by conspicuous spending, were always trying to preserve our assets lives, and telling them that they need to dial it back, and i think we gave him i do know we gave him particular gifts, to give to his superiors, to curry favor, so they liked him so they would promote him, so they would give him good jobs and at one point we gave him, a bottle of brandy i think, that was doctored to make it look like it was the vintage year of the birth of his boss, a soviet general. Who just love that you found this for me. You know, we will do the sorts of things. Okay. So anything else . Okay so next week a quiz on thursday, and i will see you on tuesday. Thank you for your attention. Climactic moments of the democratic convention, as a place to nomination before the Democratic National convention. That reflects a party tradition, of the infighting, despite a steam roller drive of john f. Kennedy. And johnson poses the principal challenge. After the strong showing, he was named Vice President candidate, and a bid for party unity. But the man to watch was a hard senator from massachusetts, wow. Lead us to a purposeful Peaceful World for mankind everywhere, was a great senator of massachusetts, john f. Kennedy. Now but the front runner, came to another popular democrat, unaided by eugene mccarthy. This favorite son i submit to, you. I stevensons nomination touched off one of the demonstrations most spectacular outbursts. Among his supporters helena roosevelt, a new york governor to the partys most prominent figures and on the balloting. Was a kennedy landslide. Ladies and gentlemen, to senator kennedy. Before the first ballot is completed, a kennedy defeat with this deciding vote. A tremendous first ballot victory, and he makes his appearance. In our devotion to this country we wish to keep it strong, and we wish to keep it clean. That requires at this critical time, the best of all of us. And i can assure all of you, who have put this confidence in me, that i wobbly worthy of your trust. And im willing to fight, and we shall win. As a gop, competes in chicago under Nelson Rockefeller of new york, he dominates the scene in the early hours. Although declared the candidate for Vice President nominations, his proposals for the republican platform, agreed to by Vice President nixon, touched off a storm of controversy. Mr. Nixon overwhelming position as a gop favor, is unshaken. But the convention was roused among early expectation. As the convention got underway, i see no doubt that Richard Nixon would be the bearer of the grand old party. But the contest, for his running mate seemed wild. Perhaps to be significantly influence, by the argument over the party platform. Which threatened the convention itself. The 27th republican convention, on the foregone conclusion, generates True National excitement. Giving promise of one of the centurys most electrifying president ial campaigns. The weeknights this month, we are featuring American History tv programs as a preview of what is available every weekend on cspan three. Tonight, San Diego State university professor, pierre ethylene, lectures on the vietnam war. He looks at the conflict from u. S. Military escalation in 1965 to the fall of saigon ten years later. And the competing interests in the americans, chinese and soviets in the region. Watch tonight, beginning at eight eastern, enjoy American History tv this week and every weekend on cspan three. Paul up next on lectures in history, professor brenda grittier talks about some of the myths about rosa parks in the montgomery bus boycotts to. Professor says that she was not the first African American woman to give up her seat. She also explores why civil fight version of this history has become so widespread. Can our focus today is going to be the montgomery bus boycott. That is what you read all of your sources for accept the article that gave you a larger focus. Today that were going to go back to our discussion of the origin point, our favorite slight, which are going to be so sick of. They representing the narrative arc of the popular story of the Civil Rights Movement. Two and we are going to our origin points, with the objective of troubling it. Putting those events in context but also troubling the idea of them as origin points. An last week pick we discuss brown versus board of education, we discussed the decision, response, the impact, but also the legacy and i want to talk more about the legacy as we go forward. Were not going to do that today. And then on tuesday, we spent time talking about the emmett till case. And which the lynching of emmett till in august in 1955. We used a mix of secondary and primary sources to consider how ideologies of race, gender and justice impacted that case and impacted the lived experience of people in that case. I just wanted to take a moment to pull out and say that this week, paul what happened this week that is of a significance in relation to the emmett till case. Paul anybody paying attention . Yeah. Go ahead. Legislation. They passed the emmett till antilynching act, that designates lynching as a hate crime under federal law. And this legislation is coming 65 years after tills lynching. And 120 years after Congress First considered antilynching legislation. That is 120 years of Congress Failing to pick, choosing not to, pass such legislation. In 2005, congress did see fit to apologize to the descendants of lynching per victims, but it took another 15 years for both the senate and the house to pass this legislation, and then it will go to the white house for signing by president trump. Paul you can imagine that there are a lot of responses going on to this. The prominent one is why now . And people are asking is this commemorative . Is it a cause for celebration . Is this a cause for concern . This is preemptive . What is the context now that is making this bill put feasible within congress . When its been 120 years that it hasnt been the case . I want to take a moment to point out ida b wells. A lot of people in talking about this antilynching legislation are asking people, what about wells . Ida b. Wells was an activist and a journalist in the late 19th century who publicly and doggedly and consistently was condemning and publicizing lynching. Most notably through her publication, a red record. She did this at great personal cost. Her printing outfit was burnt down, she was run out of town. You can understand why some people might say, certainly not that till shouldnt be put attached, but where is the recognition of ida b. Wells . We will come back to wells when talking about montgomery. Going back to the origin points here, i wanted to point that out. Today we focus on the montgomery bus boycott and i want to put that in the timeline that i showed you last time. We have the brown versus board of education decision in may of 1954 the immediately after. The council forms. And then we have brown versus board of education to the following year, and may of 1955, and then the emmett till lynching in august of 1955. And i dont think a lot of people realize how close to the till lynching that the montgomery bus boycott was. If rosa parks being arrested on december 1st of 1955, that was a thursday, and then the following monday, december 5th, montgomery bus boycott begins. Thats just a little bit of context for you. To put it in a visual form. And so we are going to use the readings today to consider the bus boycott and these readings gave you a lot of information about events and circumstances leading up to but not so much information necessarily about the boycott, so we will also talk about that and we can continue that conversation in our next lectures as well. Certainly if people have questions. I want to focus on montgomery because, more than any of the other origin events that we have talked about, montgomery is most often cited as the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement within the popular narrative. And that i find, the popular narrative of the boycott itself, in the larger narrative, is somewhat problematic. And i want to dig into that mid, that story of the montgomery bus boycott. In doing that, i think an effective way of doing that is looking to a central figure in the mid, that rosa parks. I want to look at what i call the mythic rosa parks. And i want to make a real distinction between was a parks as a person, as a woman, and then rosa parks is an icon. We are going to be talking about both, those are two separate things. I want to ask you if you can give me some of you may have a lot more information about rosa parks, we have a lot more Information Available to us now. If you could give me a sense of the popular narrative, the enduring narrative or idea of rosa parks, as you likely learned when you earn Elementary School. Or typically celebrated through black history month. Anybody want to go out there . What i learned about her an Elementary School was definitely she refused to give up her seat, she was just an ordinary woman coming from work and it was just a manifestation of the common attitudes of the time and the common, she was just an ordinary woman. And a martyr, obviously, thats how it was portrayed. She definitely became a martyr in that sense. Anyone else i guess the way i learned about her was she was the catalyst for this movement that, as if she was the only woman or person that had been arrested for not giving up their seat. That is if it was a single incident that happened, and it was her. As much as the montgomery bus boycott is seen as the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, she seen as the beginning of the bus boycott. That is where that title, mother the Civil Rights Movement, comes from on her best day. How many of us can hope for such a title . But going off both those points, she is typically where she was at least, typically described as this elderly woman, she was 42 i need that not to be elderly. She was not elderly shes described as an elderly seamstress many of the accounts didnt even give her name, elderly seamstress with tired feet, tired feet who spontaneously took a stand by sitting down and then singlehandedly sparked the modern black freedom movement. And i dont want to deny her any of her importance. This is actually the rosa parks that with the best of intentions my mother introduced me to when i was very young. And i held on to that picture all the way through college, all the way through my history classes in college, well it to my graduate studies and it was only when i started doing my own research is a master student that that image started to crumble. And not just crumble, become really frustrating to me. Because i think that this ideal of parks really frustrates and negates her actual history and in particularly her activist history. And in recent years, weve had historians who are really working and it really works to break down this complicated picture. I want to point to these two books in particular. Anybody read any of them . All right, this could be good for you. At the darkened of the street, by Daniel Maguire and the rebellious life of mrs. Rosa parks. The rebellious life of mississauga parks, already tells you that thats going to be a corrective narrative. If you have a desire to know more about rosa parks, as a woman, as an activist, these are great sources. Im actually drying on them some to do that with you today. I want to use these books or use the information i have from books in my own research to kind of deconstruct that mitt. I am going to ask you if you know more about rosa parks or if what you are holding on to you just raise your hands you can even have to answer if what youre holding on for how many people youre holding on to this kind of typical iconic idea that get celebrated in black history month. For how many views that the image that youre most familiar with . Wow. Okay. All right, that is really not surprising because i think that image circulates in museums and newspapers indefinitely an Elementary School Childrens Books and all of those. Its not surprising to me. But it is troubling to me. It is very troubling. What i want to point out is how simple and inaccurate that representation is. I just start at the beginning. Beginning in the 1930s, rosa parks was campaigning on behalf of the Scott Sparrow boys with her husband. Melanie brought up to scotts brutal boys in her last class in terms of these nine African American men who were accused of raping two white women on a train and then a long, drawn out case in which many of them spent years and years and years in prison. So rosa parks was actively campaigning on their behalf and which is notable because also as melanie brought up, these were African Americans who were defended by the communist party. So right there, that is a subversive kind of activity. Dont worry about writing this down. I will send this to you immediately after. Listen to the story. Just listen to the story, particularly if this is the first time youve actually had any encounter to this woman. I promise you. She sat as the look out on the steps to her own home while there were meetings, naacp meetings held in her house, where she discusses seeing, she had never seen so many guns on your kitchen table. She had never seen so many guns until those meetings were held in her house. Part she joined the naacp in 1943 and these are the second or the third woman in montgomery to do that. I should say the montgomery chapter of the naacp. She became the secretary almost immediately. Nobody else wanted to do it. That in and of itself as a woman was unusual in montgomery at the time, less and less unusual that a woman who one of the other women of the two or three twitter. Mother so you can see theres some modeling going on there. This is key, in her role as a secretary of the double naacp, in that time, she travel around the state by herself to gather evidence or proof, or testimony from blacks who had witnessed or experienced white on black violence. Think about that. How many of you have seen a picture of her, she is not a formidable woman. She is a black woman, traveling by herself through the jim crow south, to get material that many whites or authority figures, would have been upset about. This is a dangerous thing that she is doing. Quite in contrast to the image we have of her. Beginning in the 1940s, she organize on behalf of sexually abused black women. Very openly. And thats what feel harris is book is about. And he really talks about her and, traces that history of parks advocating on behalf of sexually abused black women. And black women abused largely by white men. And under the auspices of. She made repeated attempts to register to vote 1940s. And we will talk about this. And this two would be a dangerous act at this point in time. She protested segregation on the buses before 1955, in fact she was kicked off a bus by the same bus driver almost a decade earlier for resisting. For not listening to the instructions of the bus driver. She spoke, she was a featured speaker at the naacp state convention in 1948. I dont think thats an image we have a rosa parks. In fact when i was doing my research, i found an audio clip of her a new york radio interview, and i remember hearing her voice for the first time and being like, of course she is southern. It just surprised me, because i had never heard her, i had never heard her. But here she is speaking before a convention crowd in 1948. Very public. She is very public. She trained at the Highlander Folk School in tennessee. This was before her arrest, she did a twoweek training in desegregation at the Highlander Folk School. Which was pegged as communist, but it was not a communist school. It was leadership training, institution and it was precisely because of the board of education that these work shops were being held, it was how to facilitate that process. Hopefully peacefully. She never fully embraced nonviolence, and shes on the record about that. Shes on the record about not knowing if threatening with violence, or messed with in a particular way if she could turn the other cheek. She certainly supported some of the nonviolent activities of the Civil Rights Movement, but she never fully embraced nonviolence. So for how many of you raise your hands, do you find that surprising . Right again thats troubling to me. But not at all surprising. So my question then and i will allow for a couple of questions here and just monsters, its like theres no right answer but because you are the ones who know, why do you think there is such an investment or that that mistake parks as i am calling her, has survived so long well . After her death, she died in 2005. What do you think that has such currency that idea . I think, when i learned about this i think i was an Elementary School, so i was like eight nine or ten years old. And i think its a lot easier for her to be like, a onedimensional character in the story that we tell children can, when we are first learning about this history and its like for her to be a complex human being, and for her to have more to offer to the story than just sitting on a bus. Were going . Its also thinking about how a lot of us have learned by this in Elementary School, its very strategic on Public Education in general, to tell children this narrative, that black people get what they want and they are nonviolent, and pacified. And theres also the disturbance that we learn about, unlike European Countries and by white people generally you know, this is obviously a catalyst are remembered like a catalyst for this larger movement. And we are told this person was nonviolent, peaceful old, retired woman. But thats not the case,. Well its at least very politically significant, if not intended. So others anyone else want to speak to that . Yes. I also think like, this narrative presents her as a political agent, which is something at this broader for women of all races, that is something thats not mention. That she is someone that was very strategic and what she did, and even in terms of what organizations she associated with, and she chose her agency in a way that we are reluctant to talk about you know regarding women. Yeah i remember i told you to draw her name forward, thinking about parks in the actions she would take in the moment, and thats months beforehand, so we also have to think about how parks might have been, presenting herself. We will talk more about that at a different time. But i agree with all of you to an extent. The montgomery bus boycott, i think is one of our greatest national fabrications. I think its a really nice story in its popular form, of good versus evil david and goliath, and that good americans, bear out. Its those aberrant racist southerners, but good americans bear out in that sense. I think when you have a fairytale, you have simple good versus bad, and rosa parks is the hero along with Martin Luther king. They are the heroes of this fairytale. And its also interesting to me, how many learned about rosa parks the first time in Elementary School . And how many of you learned anything else about her after . Its always interesting to me because i think it rightness and that people think that children, need simple characters. And to me the sad thing is that is when i think, minds, attitudes are very flexible. They can take in complex information. I often uzis ample of what i was in graduate school this Childrens Book came out about martin with your king. And why professor brought in, and he read it to us. And it said on april 4th, 1968 Martin Luther king died. Which is not inaccurate, right, but he was assassinated. And that showed, a hesitancy to deal in that material. You know its like you have to point people to grims fairytales, which are horrifying but theres this idea, that the sanitize these stories, i think for children and i think that would be fine, but that would be okay if there wasnt any other point, and you are actually learning and building on that story and my experience is, and im sure its different in different regions in schools and stuff but, my experience is that most people, dont then have more education on the Civil Rights Movement, and rosa parks. I learned about rosa parks when i was young, preschool probably, and in Elementary School. Later i think in middle school or high school, i learned how she was not the first person to give up her seat. I think that is really interesting. In one of the articles about the montgomery bus boycott, they said that rosa parks had the caliber of character to get the city to rally around them. I was always curious about why rosa parks. I thought it was interesting that we focus specifically on her we dont talk about the back story when we are learning about her. And let me speak to that, lets go through that. One of the reasons i focus on the symbolic, mythic rosa parks, or start there, is because i think she is propping up a bigger myth of the montgomery myth, and i would argue that is also obscuring information about the bus boycott that would be helpful to us now. Information about organizing, how funded things, what formed their theories or strategies. I want to speak to that because that is a huge question why . Why do we not have that information . The montgomery myth, here are some aspects. , rosa is tired of not taking anymore and the aim is unprecedented, and the boycott is spontaneous. That is part of the container idea of the Civil Rights Movement. And suddenly you know there was organizing. So it was like the Martin Luther king junior organized a boycott, and the masses follow king the masses followed the boycott, and degraded segregated buses and i want to tick through those. And speak to those. And the first one being this idea, the parks with the first that she was the first woman, black woman to resist segregated Public Transportation. Thats not even true. There are examples, from the previous century, one of them was ida b wells. , and on streetcars, and then plessy,. So we have examples of African Americans boycotting Public Transportation before. And in other locations, birmingham alabama, and key in 1943, poly she was a teenager, and a bus driver treat her poorly she speed on him, and cursed him and spent 30 days in jail. As a teenager. Theres an instant as another woman, and she got into a shoving match with a white man on the bus but she cursed him while she was riding the bus and when she got off the bus, she was arrested and sentenced to spend time in jail. But in montgomery, to points several of you have made, there are several documented incidents of women doing exactly what parks did. Some of them did more than once. The first one being epsie worthy. In 1943 she argued with the driver, who followed her, spit on her, beat her, and according to eyewitness testimony, she gave as good as she got. I dont know what happened to her but i am guessing she spent time in jail. Henrietta brinson sat in front of a white couple on a bus and was targeted by the bus driver, but she avoided jail because the white couple agreed to move. What you need to understand about segregated buses, there are ten seats in the front and ten in the back. Or 16 16 seats. And then theres whites and blacks and no mans land, so depending on who is on the bus, the seats went to the white patrons. And the African Americans had to do whatever they were instructed to do. And whats important here is the bus drivers had police powers. So that makes me think resisting it makes it doubly risky. They could do what a Police Officer could do in those circumstances. Including violence. And two other examples rosa parks as i said she resisted, a decade before and one of the worst cases is viola white who in 1943 of viola white she refused to give up her seat. She was beaten arrested, and found guilty and she appeal the case and as a reprisal white Police Officers kidnapped her 16yearold daughter and raped her in a cemetery. That was for her resisting than we also have this general article pointed out in the same year in 1955, we have clogged it coleman, who is a 15 year old teenager who refuses to give up her seat on the bus, and the naacp and everyone rallies around her in 1955 and she wants a pregnant. In april of that year, a month later area broader, has an incident on a bus and she is arrested forget resisting to give up receipt and october Mary Louise Smith an 18 year old refuses to give a percy also before rosa parks we dont know about her because her father came down and paid her fine and she was out before the naacp ever know about it both claudia covid and Mary Louise Smith have said things to the effect of we were in the inner circle we were too dark and too poor, the smith family were catholics, which also put them outside the bounds of the circle in that sense. So we had three, at least three women who have done the same thing in the same year as rosa parks. To so we need to think about need to scratch off that rosa parks was the first. Lets just take that off. When you say that there are too dark, too poor or using they couldnt be the figure behind the boycott . Find a movement . Right. Thats what cold men and louise smith believed and theres evidence that supports them in that because you have parks and eating aches and what you read about, both saying we cant use them, the media will tariffs up. I cant help but see it as not really seeing rosa parks as a threat, more innocent. I think if she was wearing like a black panther uniform and a break, that would be a completely different story. To her skin complexion i think has something to do with it, because she doesnt look like the possibly the traditional. People i dont think theyve seen as much of a threat or super innocent in that case. Theres definitely evidence, parks as this yourselves. You nixon is like, hala. Shes the one they all gather at her house and was against it . Her husband. Hes not an idiot, he knows how dangerous that is. Do you think that robinson and nixon f. Scott nixon kind of force that narrative to make her figure of the Civil Rights Group that is been propagated since then . Great question. I dont think robertson did, i think parks did, i think nixon did. Robinson was angry. She was really angry when they backed off of coal than. She was a young girl that parks had worked with because parks was in charge of the naacp youth activities. They had a relationship in that sense. When they backed off, she was really upset. As the article tells, you they are waiting. Robinson has been fighting this fight for a decade. And when the decision, the brown decision comes out, and she writes four days later, she writes to the mayor just reminding you, African Americans make up 75 of the riders and if we were to actually boycott, that would be really bad for the bus company. That is a threat, the to the degree to which he could do it, i dont think you can take that on robinson so much. But i think we can take it on gender politics of the time. Certainly also the politics of color, because its not incidental that shes a light skinned woman and she is chosen. All of these things lead or allow for this idea of middle class respectability. They all lead or allow for a level of middle class respectability. Despite the fact that rosa parks is absolutely of the working class. Arguably, of the working poor. She doesnt have that veneer, she does not have a demeanor that is radical. She has a radical activist past but she doesnt have a demeanor that is radical. There is definitely image politics going on here. We can decide whether or not we fault them for that or that they are looking at the reality of their situation, and we have talked in here about the trap of getting into an image politics game. And so, one of the things we could consider is, what are the effects of rosa parks having been the symbol . I think that goes back to Morgans Point of who is worthy of justice . We talked about that with maybe toe bradley as well paul i want you to keep in mind that the question often comes up why women . Why was it primarily women and was it primarily women who were doing this . And all you need to know is emmett till. You see these women get beaten, but to do the same type of resistance as an africanamerican man would have been even riskier. Also, africanamerican men were not riding the buses as much. It was women on the bus primarily. Also because they were domestics. They were on the bus in a greater capacity, and often with white people. The lines were blurred because they might do the Grocery Shopping with the children of their white employer. In that capacity, they set up front, because the white baby was not going in the back. There is a little more blurring of the line. There are stories of africanamerican men, if there was a scuffle with an africanamerican woman, they would just go out the back door. They suffered psychically for that and criticize for that. They understood how loaded that situation was. I want to go to the next idea of this movement being unprecedented and spontaneous. I want to try and trouble that. There are examples within alabama that refute that idea. There is a boycott in 1900 of the trolleys that lasts about two years. Its not as total as the montgomery bus boycott is. The montgomery boy spoke out is 95 successful among African Americans. And robinson is right, if 75 of your clientele is African American, and the 95 of them stay off the buses, this crippled the bus company. They had to keep raising fares, they were very much on the brink of financial ruin, and yet, time after time after time again, they refused to segregate the buses. That is important to think about, to understand. Montgomery blacks boycotted the buses in 1941 around Easter Holiday event that happened and they said that they were off and bust out but dropped far away and had to walk in the rain and everything, they boycotted the buses, that was just a very short event. And then in baton rouge in 1953, there was a bus boycott that people in montgomery very much took information from. And so that is when i say if you have a bus boycott narrative that is a simple is the one that we have, you cant do what people in montgomery did in terms of the baton rouge boycott. Where they took information and they learned from that to organize their own boycott. And then this idea of it being spontaneous, i think guerrero successfully deconstructs that idea. If you look at when the general article was written, in 1985, so when i ask you, how many of you have a more complex idea rosa parks where the montgomery blessed boycott, and you are telling me that in 2020, its still coming down this way, thats troubling. Weve had this information now for a long time. People, educators, weve had this information for a long time. And the womens political counsel just blows that out of the water, that idea that it was spontaneous, that they decided at the last moment, we know from gary that there was a plan in place, at least a loose plan that robinson was just waiting. There had been many, many kyci t what do you think accounts for the . Catherine. I think part of it is the image of Martin Luther king junior as the leader and the figurehead in all of this. In us the montgomery bus boycott is the origin point for him and so is the story is not like he was the one leading this and he was the one pushing this forward, then that kind of makes things difficult for his narrative. Very much, that is in keeping with what was said before about rosa parks in that simple idea. Absolutely, and the other thing that we have to understand is that African Americans on the grounds are forging some of these ideas because it is politically expedient and safer to do so. And that is important to consider when youre thinking about a marginalized group. Or a marginalized group or an oppressive group trying to advance their politics. Within any particular historical moment. The African American women that were talking about, particularly women like joanne robinson, shes an activist but she still in middle class black women in the south, im not just saying that because she waslimited. She also has some gender ideologies about how she should behave as a middle class woman in the south. Those are things that we also have to understand that a lot of African American women were putting the black man in front. Theres some of the practical reasons for why they could do that. Because one, they think that is the image that should be out there, that makes the African American men looks stronger, it doesnt emasculate them in a way. And robinson has a job. She has a job to university. We learn, i love this. I remember learning about robinson and her distributing this lee flip in the middle of the night, getting her student to go to her university and memo graphic this leaflet once rosa parks was arrested, saying this is happened to another person, we cant let this happen anymore, boycott the buses on monday. She blankets the black section of towns with this to the point where white ministers and church on sunday are saying whats happening . Where is coming from . And the news reports on it in sunday the Montgomery Advertiser, reports on it that sunday afternoon, where it is coming from . She does it all in the middle of the night. She gets into trouble for. She gets into trouble for it because she has used University Property to do it. But the do it yourself kind of nature of this, she says that she already had it written to the large degree, shes just waiting to be them your craft. But there is a reason that she did it behind the scenes. And that at the time, when the Montgomery Advertiser was like was responsible for this . The w. Pc wasnt like, high, its us. Right . And in fact, that friday, thursday night they distribute these leaflets, that friday all the African Americans ministers get together and black leaders get together to talk about what to do. That becomes more the sight of oh, the organizing or the thrust behind that. So, then theres this idea which is connected of Martin Luther king organizing the boycott. And that everybody was following his order. And that is partially because he was among that group of blackmail leaders. Its also because he was elected as the president on a monday afternoon, the day that the boycott starts, hes elected as the president of the montgomery and proven association, which is the organization that was the official representative of the boycott. Why do you think hes elected . Does anybody know anything about king at this point in time . Hes 26 years old hes just moved to montgomery. As a minister he kind of provides a level of respectability to the movement. Everybody agrees hes got a ph. D. At 26, hes got a ph. D. In theology, hes articulate there is a coated word, hes articulate, he presents well. Definitely. But hes also knew he kind of gets pushed out front because he doesnt have any of the relationships, the patronage relationships that some of the other blackmail leaders do, he is not loyal to anyone yet. And if he messes up, they dont do something so im not saying that he wasnt willing to do this or volunteer, but think about a cap member who said it, this is also the origin point for more in the third king. 26 years old. No way did he know what this was gonna mean for him. How he is going to be launched on to the national. Stage partly because nobody thought this boycott was going to last more than a day. The reason was it that monday, its because its the day that rosa parks was going to her trial nobody thought this is going to last more than a day. The other reason people think king was the leader is because at the mass meetings like the one described in the reading, he is upfront. His audience is the masses. It is easy for outside media, which did come and film this, report on it, to see him as a leader. At this first mass meeting, that is what this picture is, rosa parks, the presenter, and Martin Luther king said, this person, we are lucky she is the face of our movement, she is not a disturbing factor in the community. She was a disturbing factor in the community. She is standing there and she says, can i Say Something . And the ministers say you have done enough. I always find that interesting. She sits down. I wonder what the dynamics were. She sits down because she takes their gift of you have done enough, lets recognize you, or if it is we got this. But she sits down. It is very easy, you see the mantle shift from parks to king that night. Its the official debut of the parks we know. This nondisturbing, middleclass, respectable woman. From that point forward, the Media Campaign begins. And i told you that the till trial, was one of the first media events of the Civil Rights Movement. This was a media event and it was a stage drama. So part of the reason people see him as a leader, is because he is standing out front all the time. But throughout the boycott, he and the women who have been arrested before, and he are saying that is not me. Im not the leader. I am a spokesperson, but the masses are leading this movement. And we Claudette Colvin says the leaders are we ourselves when asked about king. She is still a teenager at this point. King is not refuting that. He considers himself lucky to be representing them, but because of the gender politics and the media image and how it is being positioned, there is this idea that he is the leader. It is interesting to know that on monday, that monday, december fifth, everybody gathers at this mass meeting to assess how it has gone. The Montgomery Improvement Association was informed that afternoon. The idea is it is a boycott, very successful, they show their strength, and all of the people in the audience are like, we are not going back on those buses. Especially the maids and cooks. We are not going back on the buses, we are not suffering that humiliation anymore. This is no longer like, this is a show of force. The masses decide that night, we will continue this. Then it becomes a matter of how to run a bus boycott. Because it says here masses walked. I put that as an aspect of the montgomery myth, absolutely African Americans were walking in all sorts of weather for miles and miles. Theres testimony about people about how they walked miles into work and out. There is this really iconic photograph of one white lady and the buses otherwise empty. And there are reports of African Americans threatening other africanamericans if they get on the bus. So they are absolutely walking, but its not reasonable to think that if they had to walk everywhere, to their jobs and everywhere they wanted to go, that this would have been successful as they wanted it to be. It wouldve been a burden that was really difficult. ,,. ,. ,,,. , the spring of 1956. So primarily these women and none of this is visible, if you have the saintly rosa parks and then suddenly the powers that realize this is really wrong and they disagree to the buses. Its a lot of work that went into it. Well there is no narratives, he compiles all of these documents about what was going on during this boycott. You see the memos and the inter office memos about events, and plan things they needed, and how they were going to fund king going to different places to talk and so this was a big big, machine behind the boycott, and this is a huge one. The idea, that the boycott among government boy bus boycott, was segregated not the buses. How many of you think thats true . Or have thought thats true . This is a trick question right. How many do you think thats true . I wont say that its not true, this is a debatable question, but it did not officially and segregation on Public Transportation. Any guesses as to what would . Where did . We melanie . Since it lasted for 382 days, so i think if you look at it like a monetary perspective, how much money they were losing and if they could sustain that i think it was more so a monetary issue really. I think that is very logical and reasonable, yes. The because it should be. Of course, they are crippling the bus company and theyre making it very difficult. They have to keep reducing bus routes, and the fact that that is not the answer, tells you how entrenched the city officials were. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is that there. No, but there was legislation. The broader versus gayle, remember router could that court case, i think this is another instance where this is a huge injustice. You have five plaintiffs, eventually reese drops out, because they are harassed no and. And you have five plaintiffs, who bring this court case against montgomery and the bust company. And looking at that list of plaintiffs, notice any absences . Who is not there . Rosa parks is not anywhere there, and she cant be chic no longer be a test case, because during her trial, they changed what she had been charged with. She was charged for violating the city coordinates, and the City Ordinance said that, if there were seats available, African Americans could sit on them. The state order distance said they had to do whatever the bust said. So it was amended, in the middle of the trial and then her lawyer went to appeal it. Because it was under appeal, she could not be the test case. So she is not involved in this case. Any other absences you might notice here there are no man. And there is an appeal for men. Its an appeal for men. And e. D. Nixon says, at the montgomery improvement meeting, its like seriously guys. You have been riding the apron strings, of these maids forever. Like none of you king . No one . Youre not gonna put your name to this . Its interesting because the blackmail ministers, were less vulnerable, because their patronage were black people. Didnt have a business, they were working at university, funded by white people. So its all women, and its women who have experienced arrest or harassment on the buses. Including the Mary Louise Smith, and people not eligible, not the right fit for being the face of the movement. And they were not, you dont even know about this case right. So they were not the face of the movement. But this case goes forth, it starts february 1st, 1956. It goes forth, and this is where you get all the testimony about women being recognized. These Important Documents are so useful, because you have testimony from all the people from what happened to them. And that brings in all these other records about their rest. And you have to say in public court, against the mayor and the city of montgomery. This happened to me, thats why im here. They keep asking you no klondike says, they keep on having to find about king, and the leaders are just being themselves. So, it starts in february, and in june of 1956 you have a ruling, the lower court rules, june 1st in favor of the plaintiffs. On the ground that 14th amendment. City officials appeal they are not giving up. November 13th the Supreme Court upholds that lower court ruling, and a city officials appeal. And this accounts to the fact that its 381 days. African americans are not going back on those segregated buses. September 20th, the Supreme Court, they did hear the case again. They thought they would not hear the appeal. So that effectively ends the citys quest, or attempt to stave off the desegregation of the buses. A decree of that, ruling reaches montgomery on december 20th 1956 and African Americans meet, for their final last meeting of the boycott. And its like ok we got what we wanted, and we will go on the buses starting december 21st 1956. That warning, cameras come from all over the country and go to Martin Luther kings house, and watch him and ralph apathy, and other prominent ministers, walked to the station at five in the morning and get on the bus, and they get all these photographs of dark iconic photographs now. At some point in the morning someone says, but what about the parks woman . Maybe we should get a photograph of her. So they do go and find her, but she is an afterthought. So even though shes become the face of the movement, she is not the leader of the movement and she was the one that was relatively taken care of, and this is because during the entire year, every time she appears as a in a public setting, as relation chip to the boycott, she is with men. Very much that you dont see nixon is standing here, the lawyer is next door, shes surrounded by men in suits and ties. And so she does speak, after certain events and stuff, but she is right next to these authoritative looking African American men. Throughout the entire thing. So they do become seemingly the strength of that movement. So i think thats in that an injustice, that no one knows about these women. Aerial a broader, she had six children she was a seamstress, she was a wife and mother and midwife. She went back to get her bachelors degree in her thirties, and she got her masters degree. She was an activist, and they did not pick are firsttime because they did not think that she could withstand crossexamination. And thats why they didnt use her is a test case. Then she becomes the lead of this case, and nobody knows about it. Nobody knows about her. So to that end, what melody brought up is this idea that the boycott was just just out of curiosity, because most of you admitted it i have eschewed idea of this. How long do you think most people, if not yourself thought the boycott was . Or how long do you think most people think the boycott was. You just yell out a number. The few weeks. Yeah yeah thats, well i grew up thinking and i think what allows for that is that fairytale idea. Again some things are so wrong, wouldnt take that long. So with the router versus gayle case, my question to you is the, did the boycott desegregate the buses . You dont have enough information to make a this is where i am planting my flag. But without the boycott, what do you think . Browder versus gail put the nail in the coffin of plessy versus ferguson, that was when separate but equal went by the wayside. This was a huge ruling. Arguably more important or as important as brown, as brown v. Board of education. A huge ruling. Do you think the boycott was necessary to that ruling . I think it was, because i think the boycott, while it was not an illegal action or might not have produced, might not have taken it down, it changed peoples perceptions of what was happening with separate versus equal. And Media Campaign, it reverberated throughout the country. I think you change peoples hearts, you change peoples minds. Maybe that is playing into the myth, but i think it grew, especially in the north. To that extent, you talked about how there were previously court. With the buses and desegregating them, i think the boycott was necessary to finalize, like you said, nail in the coffin. Ok. Anyone else . Yeah. I think thats a very strong argument. The Supreme Court, officials are not operating in a vacuum. And so to understand that Public Opinion may be moving in another direction, and theres also legal grounds, but to understand Public Opinion may be moving in another direction, demonstrated by a northern response. Because this is when the Movement Goes national, right . This is when the Movement Goes national. People are sending in money from all over the world. The Movement Goes international, actually. There are political cartoons you can find in french newspapers talking about the boycott. The Movement Goes national and international. So if you think, and put that in a cold war context, too, thats part of the reason people are interested. And it inspires a similar boycott in south africa. So people are paying attention to this, in a way that had not gotten that attention before. Why do you think this one got so much attention . Its not that that hadnt happened in montgomery before. Why did this result in a National Media event . The answer is implied in the question. [laughter] because they had media available . [laughter] you cant take out the fact, we have this idea of a movement in the postwar moment, without considering the circumstances. The cold war, something to consider. We had new technology, and this is the first example of a movement that is considered nonviolent direct action. Not the first time that strategy was used, but this is one that becomes publicized. I need to be careful when i say this because, i do not want to dismiss the idea that the people who were in the boycott, were not done for moral and principled and civil reason. But its also pageantry. And we have media cameras, and you have people coming down and you see justice crowds in crowds rule after rough to row, of well draft African Americans, some dolefully peacefully, walking up to the station, that is an image of blackness that has not been mainstream before that. And after this subsequent activists they take note. We will talk about that, we talk about little rock and birmingham. And this nonviolent direct action, and certainly this is a strategy that they had used in other moments of their movement, it becomes something that people understand as defining the movement. That comes out of montgomery in that sense. So it has this National Presence and also to your point its not scary, to the segregationists it is scary but its not scary because there is no angry black people. There are no weapons, nobody is demanding anything nobody is demanding they are just peacefully refusing, and they are you know the boycott is considered illegal, and they take king and they put him into you know they charge him on conspiracy, and on those grounds and, they bring all those other people between robinson and parks, how many have you have seen a picture of parks, the mugshot of rosa parks. That is not from when she was arrested. Thats from when she had to participate in this conspiracy trial you have all these African American people show up at the courthouse, they find king has been arrested, and theyre like wires my warrant. This is never happened before were African American people are not afraid. They get nervous close, they drive to the jail all sorts of working class people line the courthouse steps. To make sure they go in and go out. They turn themselves in. That is a shift in the relationship of African Americans towards law enforcement. You dont take yourself to a jail with, you dont they show up. And it totally show some of the leverage that the city authorities had in that sense. But throughout the boycott, they put an injunctions injunction against the taxis, and theyre doing all these things to try to cut the legs out from beneath the boy colors but unsuccessfully. And i think all that pageantry, is what allows for the idea that we have of the montgomery bus boycott. Being an action of martyrs and saints, and Martin Luther king marching the masses to freedom, and walking down in that sense and starts his freedom movement. So you can see why i find that problematic, because this is not a useful history in my mind, its inspiring and thats important. That is important. You dont want to rip down a myth or story without putting Something Else there. And i think if you had an idea about this, about the organizing and how they were successful this is one of the most more successful movements in history. We found talk about u. S. History at least in the 20th century. They were successful. And if king and parks, turn to be these figures, and who in your best day could be a saintly or is courageous as king and parks as these things make them appear any certainly were courageous right . People do complex things and put in these situations for a myriad of reasons. And then you start to think, oh that is possible. Lets look at what they did. Of course you cant take their strategies and map them into the 24 century, but we can take their strategies and it just for our historical circumstances. That is a useful history. This is not a useful history as far as i am concerned. So if we put this here, and i give you this timeline, i want you to have a sense of the bus boycott timeline, and i will send this to you know reiterate now, okay hold on and i also want to point out parks is role. So you have parks before she ever got on the bus, before she ever made her stand. This is important because people always say she was either a plant, or she didnt mean to but she was inspired. Shouldnt have to be at and naacp plant. She was entirely inclined to do what she did in the bust that day. It didnt have to be planned. She was entirely inclined to do that. And then you have the Supreme Court ruling, that ends the bus boycott. And i want to point out all these other women, just to make sure but i will and hear. So you have the symbolic mythic rosa parks, propping up this montgomery myth and then the other thing that we will continue to suppress next time or, talk about story next time in other classes, is that i would argue at that this is at the more popular point of the Civil Rights Movement. I feel like going back to the general question, like not talking with the organization, or the court or rumor saying its inspirational, you know youre talking to these Young Children in school, i think the whole point of our Education System is to push forth like its an agenda, and so we dont bring about these know the young black people in the class, and its like off we are fighting solidarity, an organized we are able to progress properly. But instead the rhetoric, that if youre just peaceful and quiet about it nothing will happen. But obviously thats definitely not the way it happens. I think other reasons why, it is never spoken about is because if you speak about it and its true its for, an almost might ignite a different feeling in these Young Children. And they have to bring them in line with each other. Im not the case in many cases, and i dont have time to tell you anything about the brown case. We talk about the decision. We dont know anything about the nine children who were involved in the brown case. We dont know anything about them. Thats not sexy. The decision was sexy, the boycott was sexy. The details, and thats the part of the reason we should question why this movement now. Because its not sexy, were not seeing pageantry stuff. It doesnt mean that is not organizing going on, and the pain article, part of why give it to you. You know you may have to consider reconsider your ideas of what leadership is. , you have to allow yourself to consider what they mean by organizing,. I want to quickly say, that i was reading emmett till and the bust boycott readings, and it is my own observation to like a mothers movement, and part of black lives matter, and i dont think they get enough credit as like leaders in the movement as they should. And like they definitely you know in other womens were the ones who allowed them to have this boycott and i guess is drawing comparisons and thinking about those mothers that were involved in it. And well talk more about this and the need for people on the ground, in the mid 20th century, to keep the activity secret and the consequences of that. And i told you earlier about this book, all black lives matter, by barbara me, and that considers all the details, and it tells you whats going on right now or what has been going on in the last couple of years. Is the first time reading something that i had some optimism. And its like im not seeing it as people have adopted different ideas of how to approach this im not seeing publicly or immediately such a degree. It doesnt mean its not actually resulting with some victories, right . Of it. Ive got to let you go. Ill see you guys next time. Youre watching American History tv. Every weekend on cspan three, explore our nations past. Cspan 3, created by americas Cable Television company as a public service, and brought to you today by your television provider. American history tv on cspan three. Exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. Coming up, this labor day weekend, saturday at 6 pm eastern on the civil war, historians kevin
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