70 Years After Montgomery: How the Bus Boycott Shaped Modern Protest and Consumer Activism

Seventy Years On: The Legacy of the Montgomery Bus Boycott

On Dec. 5, 1955, 12-year-old Doris Crenshaw and her sister went door to door in Montgomery, Alabama, handing out flyers that urged residents: “Don’t ride the bus to work, to town, to school or any place on Monday.” The action followed the Dec. 1 arrest of Rosa Parks, then the NAACP chapter secretary, who refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus.

Over the next 381 days, an estimated 40,000 Black Montgomery residents avoided city buses — walking, carpooling and using Black-owned taxis — until a legal challenge effectively ended the enforced segregation of public transportation. The boycott is widely regarded as the opening salvo of the modern Civil Rights Movement and a powerful example of sustained, nonviolent economic pressure.

Voices From Montgomery

“In this city there was a groundswell of a need to do something about what was going on in the buses, because a lot of people were arrested,” recalled Crenshaw, now in her eighties, who later dedicated her life to civil rights organizing. She met with Parks and other youth activists, walked across town to school every day during the boycott and never returned to the segregated buses.

“No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in,” Rosa Parks wrote in her autobiography, rejecting the myth that physical exhaustion alone prompted her refusal to move.

Crenshaw went on to organize National Council of Negro Women chapters, serve on President Jimmy Carter’s domestic policy staff focusing on small and minority business issues, and found The Southern Youth Leadership Development Institute to mentor young activists.

From Boycotts Then to Boycotts Now

Activists and organizers say the essential tactic of leveraging collective economic power to press for social and policy change remains unchanged, even as tools and targets evolve. Deborah Scott, CEO of Georgia Stand-Up, emphasizes that relationship-based organizing and long-term preparation — lessons passed down from civil rights leaders like the Rev. James Orange — are as important now as they were in 1955.

Today’s campaigns increasingly use social media to mobilize supporters and direct consumer spending. The NAACP’s president, Derrick Johnson, calls these efforts “selective buying campaigns” — modern boycotts that press corporations to change policies or reverse decisions, such as moves to reduce or eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Recent national calls to skip shopping events like Black Friday or Cyber Monday have targeted major retailers and platforms over corporate decisions or perceived political alignments. Organizers stress that a boycott must be strategic, sustained and rooted in community relationships to achieve meaningful change.

The Next Generation

Young people in Montgomery remain connected to this legacy. Thirteen-year-old Madison Pugh decided with her grandmother not to shop at Target after the retailer announced it would phase out certain diversity and inclusion initiatives. Living amid the movement’s history, she said the stories she hears make clear that the work of justice continues.

“It’s saddening to the heart to know that a whole group of people weren’t allowed to go somewhere and have an education or be treated as humans because they were a different skin color,” Pugh said. “It definitely lets me know that the job will never be finished and you have to keep pushing.”

The 70th anniversary brought descendants of activists, including family members of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy Sr., back to Montgomery to reflect on the boycott’s lessons. Organizers and veterans agree: the movement’s methods live on, adapted for new platforms and new challenges — but still rooted in community, discipline and persistence.