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Heroes

More than 100 Montgomery Bus Boycott activists were arrested in February 1956 for participating in the boycott. These courageous women and men took on enormous risks to unite and mobilize against racial segregation and humiliation on public transportation.

The Rev. Ralph David Abernathy
Euretta F. Adair
Clarence Adams
The Rev. Willie F. Alford
The Rev. Burl Mack Averhart
Ida Mae Baker
J.H. Baker
The Rev. A. Edward Banks
Sam Barnett
Walter Lee Bell
The Rev. L. Roy Bennett
Arthur Bibbins
The Rev. R.B. Binion
Mose Bishop
P.M. Blair
The Rev. J.W. Bonner
The Rev. Eddie Bradford
Samuel Brown
Norris Butler
Otis A. Carlton
Mary L. Carr
Tom Carr
Osbourne C. Chambliss
The Rev. J.H. Cherry
Louis Christburg
Dr. M.C. Cleveland
P.E. Conley
The Rev. Fred L. Davis
Alfred Ellis
Isiah Ferguson
The Rev. Edgar N. French
Jimmie Gamble
John H. Garrison
Tommy Gilchrist
The Rev. R.J. Glasco
Fred D. Gray
Thomas Gray
Addie James Hamerter
Will Hardman
The Rev. Joshua W. Hayes
The Rev. S. Heard
George Henderson
George Hill
John Green Hill
The Rev. A.H. Hoffman
Booker T. Holmes
The Rev. H.H. Hubbard
Edward Jackson
Mose Jackson
Alberta J. James
Jacob James
The Rev. H.H. Johnson
Mentha L. Johnson
Robert Johnson
W.H. Johnson
Dr. Moses W. Jones
George H. Jordan
Eli Judkins
Mathew Kennedy
J.N. King
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Jackson Knox
The Rev. B.D. Lambert
Audrey Belle Langford
Clarence W. Lee
E.H. Ligon
Jimmie L. Lowe
The Rev. Simon Peter McBride
Henry A. McClain
Augustus McHaney
Cora McHaney
Freddie Morris
Walter Moss
The Rev. Arthur W. Murphy
E.D. Nixon
The Rev. H.J. Palmer
Rosa Parks
Tom Parks
Wilson Patrick
Annie Patterson
Judge Pickett
James E. Pierce
Charlie Polk Jr.
Frank J. Powell Jr.
The Rev. W.J. Powell
James T. Primus
Mose W. Richburg
Jo Ann Robinson
Landy Robinson
Lillie Bell Robinson
Natis Robinson
Richard Rose
J.C. Sanders
The Rev. Solomon S. Seay
The Rev. B.J. Simms
The Rev. J.C. Smith
Walter Smith
Frank L. Taylor
Rebecca Tell
James Thornton
Wesley Tolbert
Calvin Varner
Lottie Green Varner
L.C. Walker
Eli Washington
Irene West
Georgia Wilkerson
Edward Williams
The Rev. Henry Williams
Ronald R. Young

121 results

J.H. Baker

J.H. Baker

January 13, 1926 - December 6, 2004

Sam Barnett

Sam Barnett

April 10, 1910 - February 26, 1985

Mose Bishop

Mose Bishop

March 28, 1911 - January 7, 1979

P.M. Blair

P.M. Blair

February 20, 1902 - September 19, 1976

Tom Carr

Tom Carr

August 1, 1924 - February 22, 2001

P.E. Conley

P.E. Conley

July 5, 1893 - September 2, 1974

Thomas Gray

Thomas Gray

June 2, 1923 - April 18, 2011

George Hill

George Hill

October 16, 1925 - August 13, 1977

Jacob James

Jacob James

March 10, 1912 - December 27, 1978

Eli Judkins

Eli Judkins

August 7, 1910 - November 24, 1980

J.N. King

J.N. King

September 18, 1903 - April 1975

E.H. Ligon

E.H. Ligon

February 22, 1908 - April 22, 1984

E.D. Nixon

E.D. Nixon

July 12, 1899 - February 25, 1987

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks

February 4, 1913 - October 24, 2005

Tom Parks

Tom Parks

June 26, 1923 - March 16, 2011

Richard Rose

Richard Rose

August 10, 1931 - January 30, 1996

Walter Smith

Walter Smith

June 16, 1897 - October 30, 1963

L.C. Walker

L.C. Walker

October 19, 1904 - October 23, 1971

Irene West

Irene West

September 30, 1890 - September 7, 1975

George Giles

George Giles

February 13, 1913 - January 1, 1996

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968

Born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. became the most prominent leader of the civil rights movement. When Dr. King was 15 years old, he enrolled at Morehouse College, an all-male historically Black university in Atlanta. While earning his doctorate in Boston, Dr. King met his spouse and fellow activist, Coretta Scott King, and the couple relocated to Montgomery, Alabama, where Dr. King became the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. After Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery city bus, Dr. King was selected as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA)—a group of Black ministers and community leaders that facilitated the 13-month Montgomery Bus Boycott. The MIA hosted twice-weekly mass meetings at Black Montgomery churches during the boycott. Dr. King was regarded as the boycott’s leader in the pulpit and the press, making him a target for harassment and intimidation by police and placing his life, as well as the lives of his family members, at grave risk. The Montgomery mayor implemented a “get tough” policy in response to the success of the boycott and began arresting boycott supporters for minor or imagined traffic violations and other offenses. In January 1956, Dr. King was arrested for the first time, allegedly for driving 30 mph in a 25 mph zone. Four days later, his home was bombed with his wife and infant daughter inside. Dr. King and over 100 others were arrested for participating in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, but only he was prosecuted for allegedly organizing an illegal boycott. Despite his conviction, the protest continued until the Supreme Court’s mandate declaring racial segregation unconstitutional on public transportation in December 1956.

Thrust into the national spotlight, Dr. King founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), through which he organized a series of nonviolent protests. Dr. King lived and worked under the constant threat of violence from those opposed to racial equality; he and his family were routinely harassed and menaced. Rather than protect Dr. King, Southern law enforcement routinely targeted him. Dr. King was arrested more than 25 times for engaging in nonviolent protest; while incarcerated, he wrote his powerful “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” in which he explained why nonviolent protest was necessary to counter injustice. In 1963, Dr. King delivered his famed “I Have a Dream Speech” to 250,000 people during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In 1964, Dr. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership of the civil rights movement and his emphasis on principles of nonviolence. On April 4, 1968, Dr. King was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had traveled to support Black sanitation workers striking for safe working conditions and equal pay. In his last speech, Dr. King told the audience: “I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.”