2003: Bus Stop

This story was selected by the Country Roads magazine editorial team as the representative piece for 2003 in the archival project "40 Stories From 40 Years"—celebrating the magazine's 40th anniversary on stands. Click here to read more stories from the project. 

Baton Rouge’s 1953 bus boycott, an organized, non-violent attempt to desegregate the city’s bus system, lasted several days but has since been overshadowed by later events. Timing, public awareness and the length of the boycott itself are all factors in its move to the footnotes of history. In contrast, when Rosa Parks took a stand for equality in 1955 by staying seated, a famous yearlong boycott ensued in Montgomery, Alabama. Coming on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown vs. the Board of Education decision, the later protest became a crucible for the civil rights movement. 

Interestingly, the groundbreaking significance of the Baton Rouge boycott was not lost. On December 8, 1955, Reverend Martin Luther King called Reverend Theodore Jemison of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Baton Rouge for advice on how to effectively organize transportation alternatives for Montgomery protesters. In his book, Stride Toward Freedom, King wrote that Jemison’s “painstaking description of the Baton Rouge experience was invaluable.”

The story of the Baton Rouge boycott is complicated, so consider this only a rough sketch. In February 1953, a group of citizens, including Jemison (who has declined recent interviews), complained to the city council about both a new bus rate hike and the fact that black citizens frequently stood at the back of the bus when the front section, reserved by law for whites, had empty seats. In response, Ordinance 222 was enacted. It allowed for first-come, first-served seating—provided whites loaded buses from the front and blacks from the back. The line of segregation would be fluid, determined by the majority of the race riding each bus at any given time. 

Bus drivers refused to observe the ordinance and tensions mounted. Quietly, black leaders crafted a boycott plan that included an innovative free ride system for participants, ensuring that individuals could still move around the city. The protest began June 19 and concluded June 23. Ordinance 251 passed the next day. Under it, a majority of seats on the buses would be open to anyone but specific seats at the front and the back would be reserved for whites and blacks respectively. Although this outcome was still far from just, in an age when boycotters risked having crosses burned in their yards and being physically harmed for expressing their beliefs, every victory, no matter how small, mattered. 

"It's important to remember that it took several small events to cobble together a movement," says Marc Sternberg, a Baton Rouge native whose undergraduate thesis at Princeton examined the boycott in detail. "Locally, there is still a lot of strong feeling about the outcome. I think it's very healthy for people to keep discussing it."

During the boycott's fiftieth anniversary observance this summer, a range of public activities will take place in Baton Rouge at Southern University, Louisiana State University and various community venues from June 19-22. A gospel festival, an interfaith service and a ceremony recognizing original participants are planned. 

"There will also be an academic component featuring a dialogue with noted civil rights scholars," says Sternberg, a lead organizer for the anniversary observance who now lives in New York. 

Among the names of presenters scheduled to speak is Adam Fairclough, a world-renowned professor of history at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. Fairclough is regarded as a leading expert of Louisiana's civil rights efforts and is the author of a 1995 book, Race and Democracy.- The Civil Rights Struggle in Louisiana, 1915-1912.

"We want to examine all aspects of the protest, from political and legal issues to the important roles of women and African-American churches," Sternberg says. By creating a welcoming space for discussion, Sternberg hopes the academic component will "foster dialogue and healing" in his hometown. "The lectures and presentations will be very much open to the public."

"To have world-class scholars here to discuss the event is exciting," says Ashley Shelton, another observance organizer. "When I met Marc and he told me the story, it enveloped me. To see it told is a personal crusade."

In addition to the conference and community activities, a Teacher Fellows Program will select and train fifteen to twenty East Baton Rouge Parish public and private school teachers to use oral history techniques in teaching civil rights history. The fellows will receive stipends and video cameras to prepare a traveling presentation.

"We hope to teach the moral lessons of the past," says Lance Hill, executive director of Tulane's Southern Institute for Education and Research, who is coordinating the fellows program. "The historical actors of the movement are still alive—not just the leaders, but the ordinary people, too. They have a story to tell." Ultimately, anniversary organizers aim to move the boycott beyond the margins of history, to shed light on a moment that is a vibrant reminder of the power ordinary Americans possess to transform communities by exercising their freedoms of speech and assembly. 

"None of what the leaders and protestors did was easy. It all took courage," says Sternberg. "It's important to maintain a clear understanding of the historical context. (The protesters') acts of courage inspired others and provided an infrastructure of hope for what would come later."

"I believe in taking a stand for things, in pointing out that there's a right way and a wrong way," says Willis Reed, an original protest participant and publisher of the Baton Rouge Post. "If I have a problem with something, I'm going to speak up. That's what I believed then, and that's what I believe in now. The whole affair should be more widely publicized. We took a stand for what was right."

Peeling back the layers of the story, the Baton Rouge boycott stands as more than a first gasp of a cultural revolution. It demonstrates the power of a few determined people to foster positive changes in their community. How will anniversary organizers measure the success of their own efforts this summer?

"By the quality of the conversations we have," replies Sternberg. "And I'd love to see that in general, there's a greater appreciation for what it accomplished and what it meant."

"The most important outcome will be our ability to record and make meaningful this event for current and future generations," says Lance Hill of Tulane. "As a historian, I'm not particularly interested in the past in and of itself. I want to know how history can illuminate the future."