Claudette Colvin by Phillip Hoose

Author:Phillip Hoose
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Published: 2009-09-27T04:00:00+00:00

MLK’S BOYHOOD BUS EXPERIENCE

Martin Luther King, Jr., knew firsthand about bitter times on the bus. When he was fourteen, he traveled from Atlanta to a Georgia town to take part in a speech contest. On the way home a white bus driver ordered King and his teacher to give up their seats to white riders. King refused at first, but his teacher persuaded him to give way. He had to stand for several hours. Twenty years later he called it “the angriest I have ever been in my life.”

Toward the end of his address, Dr. King delivered lines for which he would be remembered. “And we are determined here in Montgomery,” he said, his voice rising in intensity, “to work and fight until justice runs down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.” His passionate words rocked the church. “Standing beside love is always justice,” he continued. “Not only are we using the tools of persuasion—but we’ve got to use the tools of coercion.” When King sat down to thunderous applause, the crowd inside and outside was ready to act. The Reverend Ralph Abernathy took the pulpit and read a resolution asking that all citizens refrain from riding buses operated by Montgomery City Lines, Inc. “All in favor of the motion, stand,” Abernathy said. Everyone in the room climbed to their feet.

It was the first of millions and millions of steps to come. The Montgomery bus boycott was born.

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