The Rev. C.T. Vivian occupied a front seat when it came to the planning and participation of numerous nonviolent demonstrations that defined the civil rights movement.
He, like others deeply entrenched in the equality fight, initially never deemed any of the nation-changing protests as boycotts.
In fact, the term didn’t truly take root in the movement until 1955 (more on that later).
While the term held meaning among some sectors involved in the struggle, “as far as followers of Dr. King, it was a nonissue,” Vivian told me. “We didn’t talk about boycotts. We talked in terms of ‘economic withdrawals.’ We talked about withdrawal of support from an evil system.”
The day after the execution of Troy Davis, filmmaker Michael Moore appealed to the masses to boycott Georgia, calling it a “murderous state” on his website.
Vivian came to mind when I decided to explore Moore’s battle cry. After all, he’s a living legend who played a substantial role in the civil rights era. He often was right there next to King, Ralph David Abernathy and other trumpets for justice and equality.
According to Vivian, the term “boycott” was adopted into the movement’s vernacular after the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955.
You know the story: Pioneer Rosa Parks refuses to relinquish her seat in the “colored” seating section to a white rider. She gets arrested and charged with violation of Alabama’s bus segregation law. Blacks in town rise up, organize and refuse to patronize the city’s public transit system.
Hence, boycott.
On the night of Parks’ arrest, Jo Ann Robinson, who oversaw the Women’s Political Council, circulated a flier throughout the black community. It stated in part:
“Don’t ride the buses to work, to town, to school, or anywhere on Monday. You can afford to stay out of school for one day if you have no other way to go except by bus. You can also afford to stay out of town for one day. If you work, take a cab, or walk. But please, children and grown-ups, don’t ride the bus at all on Monday. Please stay off all buses Monday.”
The stand lasted nearly 13 months and ended when the federal courts ruled unconstitutional Alabama’s racial segregation laws for public transit. It also fueled the fire for similar boycotts in other cities, Vivian told me.
“From that moment on, there was a movement we called a civil rights movement,” he said. “Nobody had ever held that many black people together in a city. It took months of fighting a real opposition, and people suffered loss of property and lost [their] cars.”
As for Moore’s call to boycott the Peach State, Vivian said potential supporters should consider various issues from the get-go:
● Is there a powerful enough reason for a boycott?
● Does it meet a need of the people, something the masses can rally around?
● Would the focus of the boycott be to protest the death penalty or the execution of Davis?
“These are the questions you have to immediately ask,” Vivian said.
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