The Baton Rouge Bus Boycott: The Mark That Could Not Be Erased

The Baton Rouge Bus Boycott was the first large-scale bus boycott by Blacks of the segregated bus system in the United States. In June of 1953, Martha White, who was a 23-year-old Black housekeeper, refused to move from the Whites Only Section of the city-owned segregated bus. The Black church and community came together both legally and physically. Within days, the impact to the city-owned segregated buses demanded public policy changes in Baton Rouge. Discover how hidden figures like Martha White and unsung heroes of the Baton Rouge Bus Boycott created the blueprint for the Free Ride System. This photo book of a poem reflects a personal reflection on the people, places, and sequential events of the Baton Rouge Bus Boycott in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Two years later in 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for sitting in the Whites Only section of a segregated bus. Consequently, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a 13-month bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama modeled after the Baton Rouge Bus Boycott’s blueprint. The Montgomery Bus Boycott ended when the Supreme Court ruled segregation on public buses was unconstitutional.