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The Intersections Between Gandhi, The Montgomery Bus Boycott

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It was the Summer of 1998 and we moved to Cleveland, I had a 3- year old son. We had been there about 7 months and Black History Month came around. I thought I was so progressive and I had my son watch a movie about Rosa Parks with me. We talked with him about the buses and what segregation was. The following day I took him on the public transit, he looked at the black men seated and tells them to “Go sit in the back.” I thought I would die from embarrassment right there, I knew then this was going to be a lifetime of learning, but I really had no idea how much I didn’t know. Desmond Tutu’s quote was powerful and summed up perfectly all of the reading and videos that I viewed this week. “When people decide they want to be free, there is nothing that can stop them.” …show more content…

For example; the key to defeating injustice is non-violence and the groups had the foresight to practice non-violent demonstrations. Additionally, Gandhi had 3 conditions to ending the boycott so did the people in Montgomery. 75% of the foreign cloth shops closed and the bus company lost 75% of its daily revenue (p 77). Organize and stay united no matter how dire the circumstances became, and to utilize whatever time and space were available to do so as South Africans did at the weekly funerals and Alabamians did in the churches and by walking to and from work after a 16 -hour day shows a commitment to freedom that I cannot fully comprehend. Further, Gandhi would die by assassination as would

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Overcoming injustice and oppression is a difficult thing to do. Overcoming institutional, century’s old, outright and abject injustice and oppression is another animal all together. In a letter written from his Birmingham jail cell, Dr. King weaves philosophical ideals and scriptural/moral principles into a fabric of reason which absolutely decimates the foundations of segregation and its active or tacit supporters. While providing clear proof of his deep understanding of the issue at hand, Dr. King authors a moving yet emotionally grounded appeal to his fellow man about their sense of justice, morality, responsibility, and motive in placing one race above another.

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“Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.” (King). King calms the African Americans who are being oppressed by using the words, “this situation can and will be changed.” and “Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.” which gives them hope that there will be a new day when a change will take place.

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