Summary II

The Baton Rouge Bus Boycott ended on June 25, 1953, when the city council agreed to let black passengers sit in the front seat if there were not any white passengers sitting there. This was a major victory against Jim Crow laws in Louisiana. This proved African-Americans in Louisiana could eliminate segregation in Louisiana if they wanted to.'This bus boycott later served as a template for the Montgomery Bus Boycott. I find it interesting that a important step in the Civil Rights Movement started in my home town. It is even is even more interesting that most of the meeting places of this boycott happened in my material grandparents' neighborhood.

I found this from http://www.allsands.com/potluck4/busboycott_zle_gn.htm

The Baton Rouge Bus Boycott Source Summary

In March, 1953 African American leaders had the Baton Rouge City Council pass Ordinance 222, which allowed African Americans to sit at front of the bus depending if they got there first, still leaving the first row of seats open  for white passengers. However, due to objection from the bus drivers, it was ruled illegal because it clashed with Louisiana's segregation laws. To oppose this the ruling, members of the African-American community started to organize a bus boycott. During the boycott, meetings were held at Mt. Zion Baptist Church , which was the leader of the boycott's parish.  A free car lift was made to transport people who needed to go to work. The moment worked hard to break any rules, for example, they did not allow any of the car lift to charge for their services, because if they did they would have been illegally taxiing without a license. To finish the boycott the Baton Rouge City Council agreed to make a comprise, if the African-Americans agreed to leave the first two rows of seat open for white riders and fill the bus from the rear to the front they could sit in the front of the bus.

I believe the African-American community should not have agreed to these terms, because they cause enough economic damage to the bus companies, already they could have pushed until they could have sat anywhere they wish on the bus. If the African-American community did so, the Baton Rouge Bus Boycott would have been far more famous than it is now.

This is a summary of this website: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/african_american_history/44770/2

Resource

I was researching the Baton Rouge Bus Boycott and I found this NPR piece about it, so the URL for the story is http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1304163.

This radio piece is from 2003, when the city of Baton Rouge was celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Baton Rouge Bus Boycott, which historians believe was the first time African- Americans organized to challenge segregation. In 1953, eigthty percent of bus riders were African- American yet they were still forced to sit in the back of the bus, so a lot of times the back of the bus would be full and African-American riders were forced to stand when the front of the bus was empty. 

Justification

For the class I am taking I have to justify why I am doing the subjet I chose, so here is the justification:

Baton Rouge Boycott:
           The Baton Rouge Boycott, was the first bus boycott in American history,but is not as well known as the Montgumery Bus Boycott,which is a shame, because without the Baton Rouge Boycott , the Montgumry Bus Boycott wouldn't have been as successful as it was. I chose this subjet, so I could educate whoever reads the blog at the Baton Rouge Bus Boycott.




P.S. I put this justification as a commet, but it is not there now.

Introduction

Hello! My name is Jane. I am a student a the Verde Valley School in Sedona, Arizona. For my United States History Class I have been assigned to blog about a historical events which took place after the Civil War. For this assignment I will blog about the Baton Rouge Bus Boycott.