One of the biggest misconceptions about the Montgomery bus boycott is that it hurt the city or the politicians.
When the Montgomery Improvement Association organized its boycott, the leaders understood that, like many other municipalities, the city’s bus system was privately run. Mayor William A. Gayle and the white Alabamians were unfazed by the revenue losses the city incurred. Gayle was even re-elected for a second term.
But National Bus Lines, the company that ran Montgomery’s public transportation system, lost so much money that it had to shutter some of its bus routes. The solidarity in the Black community caused the white bus drivers to lose money and forced white workers to find a ride to work. More than seven months before the Supreme Court’s Gayle v. Browder decision ended the boycott, the bus company ordered its drivers to stop being so segregation-y.
Grassroots organizer, political strategist and Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown understands how to leverage power. She visited the Wake-Up Call to discuss the We Ain’t Buying It movement.
Beginning on Thanksgiving and extending through Cyber Monday, grassroots organizations are asking Americans to leverage their economic power by:
Blacking Out: Don’t buy anything from Target, Amazon or Home Depot stores during this week. Use the time and money to connect with those you love, and rediscover what matters.
Redirect Spending: Skip the companies undermining democracy. Shop small, local or with businesses affirming our humanity.
Amplify the message: Spread the word using individual conversations and the online toolkit.
Today’s Reading List:
The Anti-Woke Tax That All Americans Are Paying by Adam Serwer
Primary Sources: Everything You Know About the Montgomery Bus Boycott Is Wrong, by Michael Harriot
The Charleston Cigar Factory Strike by Samuel Momody
They Ordered Cokes at a Lunch Counter and Changed Their Lives by Gypsy Hogan (By the way, this 1983 article about how 15-year-old Barbara Posey organized the first sit-in in 1958 doesn’t mention Posey’s 2-year-old son … Bomani Jones.)
