Which event was a widespread nonviolent protest against racial segregation in Montgomery, Alabama?

• A. Freedom Rides
• B. Montgomery Bus Boycott
• C. Selma March
• D. Little Rock Nine

Answer: (B)

Nonviolent, mass action aimed at ending bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama is exemplified by the Montgomery Bus Boycott. After Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery city bus, the African American community organized a citywide boycott through the Montgomery Improvement Association, led by Martin Luther King Jr. The boycott lasted 381 days, with people carpooling, walking, and finding other ways to get around, creating powerful economic pressure on the city’s transit system. The sustained effort helped lead to a Supreme Court ruling, Browder v. Gayle, in 1956 that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional, effectively desegregating Montgomery’s buses. This moment showed how nonviolent, organized protest could drive significant social and legal change and energized the broader Civil Rights Movement. Other events—Freedom Rides challenging interstate bus segregation in 1961, the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965, and the Little Rock Nine school desegregation in Arkansas—took place in different contexts or locations and are not the same Montgomery-focused boycott.