Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 5 december 1955 / Time Line December 5, 1955
Version 3.54. December 1955, 6. December 1955
12/05/1955
Civil ulydighed,
USA
Montgomery bus boykot indledt efter at Martin Luther King
vælges som leder af the Montgomery Improvement
Association. Dokumentation:
Martin Luther King's Journey to Activism
By: Steve Chase
For the last two years, I've broadcast a Martin Luther King Holiday
special on WKNH, the Keene State College radio station. The segment
that always gets the most listener comment is the little-known
story about how King actually became an activist during the
Montgomery Bus Boycott. It gets a laugh and an "aha."
In 1955, King was fresh from seminary, only 26 years old, and new
to town. His church was one of the smallest, wealthiest, and most
conservative of the two-dozen African-American churches in
Montgomery. His personal ambitions at the time were to run a solid
church program, be well paid for it, have a nice house for his
growing family, write theology pieces for his denomination's
magazine, and do a bit of adjunct teaching at a nearby college. He
was not dreaming of becoming a leader in the struggle for civil
rights, economic justice, and a peaceful US foreign policy.
Indeed, if it had been left up to King, the Montgomery Bus Boycott
would never have happened. The real organizer of this effort was
E.D. Nixon, an experienced civil rights and labor activist who
created the Montgomery Improvement Association and launched the
Montgomery Bus Boycott within the first four days after Rosa Parks'
arrest for refusing to move to the back of the bus. It was Nixon
who recruited King to the civil rights movement. After bailing Rosa
Parks out of jail, Nixon went home and started calling local
ministers to line up their support for his boycott idea. As Nixon
later explained: "I recorded quite a few names. The first man I
called was Reverend Ralph Abernathy. He said, 'Yes, Brother Nixon,
I'll go along. I think it's a good thing.' The second person I
called was the late Reverend H.H. Hubbard. He said, 'Yes, I'll go
along with you.' And then I called Rev. King, who was number three
on my list, and he said, 'Brother Nixon, let me think about it
awhile, and call you back.'"
When King finally agreed to come to a meeting, Nixon chuckled and
told King, "I'm glad you agreed, because I already set up the first
meeting at your church." At this first ministers' meeting, King was
very nervous about Nixon's idea of conducting an illegal boycott
campaign. Several other ministers soon began to side with King
against the campaign. In his own memoir on the Bus Boycott, King
recalls how Nixon exploded towards the end of the meeting and
shouted that the ministers would have to decide if they were going
to be like scared little boys, or if they were going to stand up
like grown men and take a strong public stand against segregation.
King's pride was so hurt by Nixon's comment, he shouted back that
nobody could call him a coward. Then, to prove his courage, King
immediately agreed to Nixon's plan for an aggressive, community
organizing campaign to build up the boycott. Everyone in the room
quickly agreed with King and the matter was settled.
With that decision made, the group began to discuss who should lead
the effort. Everyone present had expected Nixon to become the
president of the newly formed Montgomery Improvement Association.
But when he was asked about serving, Nixon answered, "Naw, not
unless'n you all don't accept my man." When asked whom he was
nominating, Nixon said, "Martin Luther King." Having just loudly
declared his courage to the whole group, King felt that he had to
agree to take on this responsibility. Then, Nixon told King he
would have to give the main address at the mass rally scheduled
that very night to announce the boycott plan to the black
community.
King rose to Nixon's challenge. Serving as the leader of the
Montgomery Bus Boycott for the next twelve months changed King.
Watching 42,000 poor and working-class black people stay organized
and do without public transportation for a year, he discovered
things about the courage and capacity of ordinary people to resist
oppression and move toward freedom. Watching the conservative,
rightwing city government finally cave in to the boycott, he
discovered the power of mass nonviolent direct action campaigns to
win real victories -- even when they are opposed by powerful
interests. By seeing his own power to inspire people to become
active citizens for a noble cause, King discovered just what kind
of person he wanted to be in this life. He now fully embraced his
new mission as an activist leader for building what he called the
"Beloved Community."
There is an important lesson here for all of us. We don't have to
be born leaders. We don't have to know everything before we get
started. We just have to get started.
Steve Chase, Ph.D.
Director, Environmental Advocacy and Organizing Program
Department of Environmental Studies @ Antioch University New
England
40 Avon Street
Keene, NH 03431
Steven_Chase@antiochne.edu
603-283-2336 (office)
603-357-0718 (fax)
* EAOP's Main Website: http://www.antiochne.edu/es/eao/
* EAOP's "Well-Trained Activist" Blog:
http://eaop-blog.blogspot.com
* EAOP's Online Activist Bookstore:
http://www.antiochne.edu/es/eao/bookstore.cfm
(7.5% of the purchase price is donated to the EAOP Scholarship Fund
at no extra cost to you)
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