Tallahassee bus boycott

Tallahassee bus boycott
Part of the civil rights movement
DateMay 28, 1956 – December 22, 1956
Location
Caused by
Resulted in
  • Race-based segregation on Tallahassee city buses abolished
Parties
Lead figures

IIC member

NAACP member

  • Robert Saunders

The Tallahassee bus boycott was a citywide boycott in Tallahassee, Florida, that sought to end racial segregation in the employment and seating arrangements of city buses. On May 26, 1956, Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson, two Florida A&M University students, were arrested by the Tallahassee Police Department for "placing themselves in a position to incite a riot".[1]: 9–10, 19  Robert Saunders, representing the NAACP, and Rev. C. K. Steele began talks with city authorities while the local African-American community started boycotting the city's buses. The Inter-Civic Council ended the boycott on December 22, 1956.[2]: 36  On January 7, 1957, the City Commission repealed the bus-franchise segregation clause because of the United States Supreme Court ruling Browder v. Gayle (1956).

  1. ^ Rabby, Glenda Alice (1999). The Pain and the Promise: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Tallahassee, Florida. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 9780820320519.
  2. ^ Spagna, Ana Maria (2010). "The Tallahassee Bus Boycott". Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus: A Daughter's Civil Rights Journey. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 9780803233928.