Biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Joining the Struggle

Soon Dr. King was at the center of Montgomery's civil rights struggle. He worked with organizations such as the Women's Political Council and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, the secretary for the Montgomery NAACP, was arrested for refusing to move to the back of a city bus. In response, the Women's Political Council of Montgomery called on African Americans to boycott, or stop using, the city buses. On December 5, the head of the Women's Political Council and other African American leaders formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to organize the boycott. They elected Martin Luther King, Jr., their president. Montgomery's mayor refused to speak with Dr. King unless the MIA stopped the boycott. The MIA defied the mayor and decided to continue the boycott indefinitely.

Before the boycott ended, someone bombed Dr. King's house, the city of Montgomery tried and convicted him on boycott-related charges, and the Alabama state government outlawed the NAACP. These events only made the rest of the nation sympathetic to Dr. King's cause. On November 13, 1956, the United States Supreme Court declared Montgomery's bus segregation laws unconstitutional. The next day, MIA members voted to end the boycott. When the Montgomery bus lines resumed full service, Martin Luther King, Jr., was among the first passengers on the newly integrated system.