The leader of the bus boycott was a local preacher called Martin Luther King who formed the ‘Montgomery Improvement Association’ to orgnaise the boycott – and the protest made him the leader of the Black Civil Rights Movement until his assassination. SO – no Montgomery Bus Boycott, no non-violent direct action, no ‘I have a Dream’ speech, no Million-Men march etc. 5. During the Boycott, the Ku Klux Klan attacked the homes of Black leaders – this turned public opinion against the Whites.
From then on public opinion, specially in the north, PLUS the Federal Government – openly supported Black Civil Rights. 6. Rosa Parkes became ‘the mother of the Civil Rights movement’: a role model, not only for Blacks, but also for women. In particular, the bus boycott showed ordinary Black men-and-women-in-the-street that – little as they could do individually – nevetheless, if they stood together and each did their little bit, that ‘we shall overcome one day’.
