Racial Issues
    Racism was a signtficant part of the lives of African Americans in the 1950s, and many crucial advances were made during this this decade. There were two people in particular who helped initiate the Civil Rights Movement; they were Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.
     Rosa Parks played an important part in the fight for equality. She was a simple seamstress on her way home from work on December 1, 1955 when one little move she made would bring her fame and change her life forever. That day she was sitting in one of the seats on a bus reserved for African Americans. A white person came on, and there were no empty seats left, so the bus driver ordered her to stand. According to the law in Montgomery, Alabama she was supposed to give up her seat, but, being extremely tired and carrying many bags she refused to stand. She was arrested, but news of her courage soon spread, and she began to get recognition for her deed from such organizations as the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).
    Although her one small protest was not great in itself, it brought awareness to the people who had put up with racial prejudice all their lives, and it showed them that their actions could make a difference.
     Martin Luther King Jr., another important figure in the Civil Rights Movement, moved to Montgomery, Alabama one year before the Rosa Parks event. When he arrived, he was a young minister not yet active in the Civil Rights Movement but in December of 1955, he got involved. On December 5, he organized a boycott against the public buses in response to Rosa Parks's arrest. It was supposed to be a one day boycott protesting segregation on public buses, but it ended up lasting almost a year. 90% of the African American population in Montgomory participated, which was part of the reason for its success. During the boycott, they walked, drove, or car pooled to comute to and from work instead of using the buses. Some people even had to walk up to 12 miles a day in order to keep up the boycott, but they still did it. The protest was finally ended on November 13, 1956 when the Supreme Court ruled bus segregation illegal in all of Alabalma. This was only one of the many feats African Americans would accomplish with the help of Martin Luther King Jr. He used his religious beliefs and knowledge, and his preaching abilities, to help fight for equality, but peacefully. He believed that peaceful protests were the only way to go, and that violence would accomplish nothing. This was a new concept to many, and proved itself to be very effective, as seen in the case of the bus boycott and many others to come.
     Some of the advances of Affican Americans can be seen through the different Supreme Court rulings made against discrimination. Before they made bus segregation illegal, they passed a law against school segregation in May, 1954. Although this may seem like a huge breakthrough, the law was not enforced properly, most schools remained segregated for a long time afterward. One example of this was at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The governor got National Guard troops to keep Aftican Americans from entering the school. In response, federal troops had to be sent down to enforce integration. The one immediate reaction to this ruling was the establishment of the White Citizens Council. This was a group of extremists fighting integration. With the help of Senator James 0. Eastland of Mississippi, the group spread to four Alabama counties, but then died out. As mentioned before, the Supreme Court also ruled segregated buses illegal. This was a big step for the advancement of African Americans, and even more than they had asked for. When they began the protest, the only things they asked for was an opportunity for African Americans to be bus drivers, and that they would sit from the back of the bus forward, and whites would sit from the front back. This way they wouldn't have to stand if there was an open seat (Siegel 58). By presenting these modest requests, they got the Supreme Court's attention, and they were able to accomplish much more than they had expected.
     The 1950's was the starting point from which equality stemmed, and in this decade, many advancements were made which would spur larger events to come. The bus boycott and Little Rock incident were only the beginning of what African Americans were willing to withstand in order to obtain equality. To come would be the thriving of the Civil Rights Movement, the march on Washington, and many other events which would eventualty bring equality.