“At the jail, an almost holiday atmosphere prevailed. People had rushed down to get arrested.”
The date is February 21, 1956. More than one hundred people, including Dr. King, are indicted for violating an archaic state law banning boycotts. How absurd! City leaders in a nation founded on a bloody protest insisting that “all men are created equal” deny its dark-skinned dwellers the right to peaceful protest.
“No one had been frightened. No one tried to evade arrest.” These courageous citizens, Dr. King writes, were “proud to be arrested for the cause of freedom.”
A bus boycott began in Montgomery, Alabama in response to the arrest of Rosa Parks on December 1, 1955. Three city commissioners, now members of the White Citizens Council, perpetrate a hoax: the local newspaper proclaims they settled the boycott with a “group of prominent Negro ministers.”
This deception seeks to divide the community. King’s organization, the Montgomery Improvement Association, spreads word that only three ministers—none of them protestors—were approached for this “settlement.” The buses are again empty the next day.
Next, a “get-tough” policy is announced. Many are arrested for minor traffic offenses. Two motorcycle policemen tail King for three blocks. Aware of the crackdown, he is careful to comply with all traffic laws. “Get out, King,” he is told when pulled over. “You are under arrest for speeding thirty miles an hour in a twenty-five mile zone.”
By mid-January, Dr. and Mrs. King receive at least thirty threats a day by telephone and mail. A friend tells King of a plot to kill him. In despair, he feels like giving up. Late one night, unable to sleep, he prays, “I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left.”
An inner voice reassures King of God’s presence. He experiences the Divine as never before. His fears fade as he hears the prodding of Jesus, “Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth.”
Three days later, King’s house is bombed. Coretta and their two-month-old baby, Yolanda, are home when the explosion on the porch assaults the house. Friends urge King to hire a bodyguard for himself and armed guards for his family. After much discussion, Martin and Coretta decide even self-protection does not justify violence.
“I came face-to-face with the question of death and I dealt with it. From that point on,” King states, “I never needed a gun nor have I been afraid.”
Harassment intensifies. Several churches are bombed. Insurance policies for autos in the car pool are canceled. King is convicted of leading an illegal boycott.
The city even takes legal action to stop car pooling! On November 13, 1956, Judge Eugene Carter grants an injunction. On that same day, however, the Supreme Court suddenly rules segregated busing is unconstitutional.
Threats increase yet again. One of many callers warns King if Negroes ride in the front of buses, they will burn down “more than fifty nigger houses.” About forty members of the Ku Klux Klan drive through the streets that night. Instead of fearful darkness and isolation, the community greets these aggressors with doors open and lights aglow. Many take walks and some wave as KKK carloads pass.
When buses are finally desegregated on December 21, 1956, the only report of physical violence is a white man slapping a Negro woman. Determined to honor King’s message of nonviolence, she refuses to retaliate.
Dr. King learns many lessons from the Montgomery bus boycott: Nonviolent resistance of evil is a moral duty; we must be willing to endure suffering rather than inflict suffering; and Jesus’ ethic of loving enemies applies to communities as well as individuals.
Fifty years ago, less than a week before the Supreme Court ruling, King preaches: "As you press on for justice, be sure to move with dignity and discipline, using only the weapon of love. Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”
©2007 Harry Rix. All rights reserved.
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