Dr. King and our nation’s journey

History tells us that the Montgomery bus boycott ran from late 1955 to late 1956. It was a mere 66 years ago that the right for anyone to sit anywhere they like on public transit was not a given. In today’s age, this seems a lifetime ago. It was, but it’s closer than we might think.

When learning of the bus boycott, it might be easy to think of it as a one-off event, that on Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for violating segregation laws, there was a boycott, and desegregation took place. In a sense this is true but it was significantly more than that. There were trials and tribulations along the way, with significant challenges overcome by those involved with the boycott. It began before Parks would not give up her seat as Claudette Colvin also refused earlier in the year. But it was Parks’ situation that led to the boycott. We all know it was the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who led the boycott and who kept the work going after to the national and international level, but there were countless others including Ralph Abernathy and E.D. Nixon who exhibited tremendous courage, determination and hardship to stand up for a right that could now be taken for granted. Organizers had to not only boycott, but also determine alternative forms of transportation all while defying the establishment that sought to limit any dissent.

We now take the situation for granted because we know the result. It is part of our history. But that history was not known at the time. It was not known that the national political winds would change. It was not known that the boycott would be effective. It was not known if the people participating would have the courage and determination to persevere for the months it was necessary to do so. But they did.

At the beginning, Dr. King sought to encourage the movement and for it to continue.

“I want to say that in all our actions we must stick together. Unity is the great need of the hour, and if we are united we can get many of the things that we not only desire but which we justly deserve. And don’t let anyone frighten you. We are not afraid of what we are doing, because we are doing it within the law. There is never a time in our American democracy that we must ever think we’re wrong when we protest. We reserve that right.”

Before he spoke these words to a congregation at the Holt Street Church, he mentioned in his writings that he was filled with anxiety and unsure of what to say. What he found was a gathering that was filled with, as he said, “enthusiasm for freedom.”

This was the beginning. There was tremendous opposition and King spent time in jail for a minor traffic offense. Both his and Abernathy’s homes were firebombed. There was violence against the participants. Yet King kept the reaction nonviolent, and ultimately effective.

Montgomery’s bus segregation was ruled unconstitutional in federal district court, and King’s name by then was known in nearly every household in the United States.

It was the beginning of his quest for equality, but it was not truly the beginning, just as his assassination was not truly the end. It is part of the long journey to a more just nation and world. As we think of Dr. King this weekend and Monday, we should consider the work he put into the cause and when we feel anxious or unsure, take solace in knowing he too felt the same at times and also did not know what the result of his effort would be until it was done, and even then, nothing is ever final and there is no known end.

Though Dr. King is known for a number of things in his time as a civil rights leader, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was the first effort that truly launched his trajectory as one of the greatest Americans and a symbol of our nation’s civil rights progress.

Just before his assassination April 4, 1968, King said, “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”

This is the long arc on which we still travel, and we must still take guidance and inspiration from Dr. King.

Jon Mays is the editor in chief of the Daily Journal. He can be reached at jon@smdailyjournal.com. Follow Jon on Twitter @jonmays.