ASU National Center to mark 64th anniversary of Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks is fingerprinted by police Lt. D.H. Lackey in Montgomery, Ala., Feb. 22, 1956, two months after refusing to give up her seat on a bus for a white passenger on Dec. 1, 1955. She was arrested with several others who violated segregation laws. Parks’ refusal to give up her seat led to a boycott of buses by blacks in Dec. 1955, a tactic organized by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which ended after the U.S. Supreme Court deemed that all segregation was unlawful,Dec. 20, 1956. (AP Photo/Gene Herrick)
November 22, 2019
The 64th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott will be commemorated at an event hosted by Alabama State University’s National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African-American Culture.
The event will be at First Baptist Church, 347 North Ripley Street, on Dec. 2 from 6-8 p.m. The program is part of the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy Series, which is named for one of the ASU’s most distinguished alumni. Abernathy, who died in 1990, was pastor at First Baptist at the time of the boycott and a lead organizer of the boycott, along with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The theme for this year’s observance is “The Seedbed of the African-American Freedom Movement in the Twentieth Century.” The program will honor the Montgomery Bus Boycott’s unsung heroes who supported the boycott as carpool driver and everyday citizens who participated in mass meetings at churches. The event will also feature mass meeting hymns and special musical selections.
The Rev. Dr. Julius Scruggs, pastor emeritus of the First Baptist Church in Huntsville, will be the keynote speaker.
The event free and open to the public.
According to a news release from ASU, the National Center’s mission is to research, record, preserve and teach the history of a courageous and determined people who refused to surrender to fear and intimidation to secure their full rights as American citizens.
