Social movements and social-change litigation: Synergy in the montgomery bus protest

Two competing schools of thought have emerged to explain how the Montgomery bus protest of 1955-56 brought about changes on the city's Jim Crow buses. The dominant explanation attributes the changes to the bus boycott led by Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Montgomery Improvement Association. A second interpretation emphasizes the critical role of the Supreme Court's decision striking down the state and local bus segregation laws. This essay provides a third explanation: that these two strategies - the boycott and the litigation - interacted, each shaping and reinforcing the other. Each strategy was a critical part of the struggle, but neither brought change by itself. This essay argues that the two strategies of the Montgomery protest created a synergy that was the key to bringing about changes on the buses.