Editing Montgomery bus boycott (section)

==Background==
{{See also|History of civil rights in the United States|Civil rights movement (1865–1896)|Civil rights movement (1896–1954)}}
Before the bus boycott, [[Jim Crow laws]] mandated the [[racial segregation]] of the Montgomery Bus Line. As a result of this segregation, African Americans were not hired as drivers, were forced to ride in the back of the bus, and were frequently ordered to surrender their seats to [[white people]] even though black passengers made up 75% of the bus system's riders.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GQlvBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA807 |title=Race and Racism in the United States: An Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic |editor-first=Charles A. |editor-last=Gallagher |editor-first2=Cameron D. |editor-last2=Lippard |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2014 |page=807 |isbn=9781440803468 }}</ref> Many bus drivers treated their black passengers poorly beyond the law: African-Americans were assaulted, [[wikt:shortchange|<span title="given back less change than necessary>shortchanged</span>]], and left stranded after paying their fares.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EFI7tr9XK6EC&pg=PA396 |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History, Volume 1 |editor-first=Bonnie G. |editor-last=Smith |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008 |page=396 |isbn=9780195148909 }}</ref>

The year before the bus boycott began, the [[The Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] and [[Warren Court]] decided unanimously, in the case of ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'', that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. The reaction by the white population of the Deep South was "noisy and stubborn".<ref>{{cite book |last1=McCloskey |first1=Robert G. |last2=Levinson |first2=Sanford |title=''The American Supreme Court'' |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |location=Chicago |year=2010 |edition=5th |isbn=978-0-226-55686-4 |page=144}}</ref> Discontented white southerners joined the [[Citizens' Councils|White Citizens' Council]] as a result of the decision.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lipsitz |first=George |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/708094574 |title=How racism takes place |date=2011 |publisher=Temple University Press |isbn=978-1-4399-0257-8 |location=Philadelphia |oclc=708094574}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |title=The Social-Psychological Origins of the Montgomery Bus Boycott: Social Interaction and Humiliation in the Emergence of Social Movements |journal=Mobilization: An International Quarterly |year=2013 |volume=18 |doi=10.17813/maiq.18.2.83123352476r2x82 |last1=Shultziner |first1=Doron |issue=2 |pages=117–142}}</ref>

Although it is often framed as the start of the [[civil rights movement]], the boycott occurred at the end of many black communities' struggles in the South to protect black women, such as [[Recy Taylor]], from racial violence.<ref>{{Cite book|last=McGuire|first=Danielle L.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/503042152|title=At the dark end of the street: black women, rape, and resistance- a new history of the civil rights movement from Rosa Parks to the rise of black power|date=2010|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|isbn=978-0-307-26906-5|edition=1st|location=New York|pages=xviii|oclc=503042152}}</ref> The boycott also took place within a larger statewide and national movement for civil rights, including court cases such as ''[[Morgan v. Virginia]]'', the earlier [[Baton Rouge bus boycott]], and the arrest of [[Claudette Colvin]], among others, for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus.