MIA Press Release, The Bus Protest is Still On
[22 January 1956]
[Montgomery, Ala.]
On Saturday night, 21 January, King received word from Minneapolis
reporter Carl T. Rowan of an Associated Press wire story stating that
an agreement to end the bus boycott had been reached between the city
commissioners and a "group of prominent Negro ministers." Earlier that
day the commissioners had arranged a meeting with three ministers not
associated with the MIA and apparently persuaded them to accept a settlement
preserving designated sections for white and black bus riders. King
and other MIA leaders quickly spread word throughout the black community
that the three pastors did not represent the MIA and that the boycott
was continuing. This is King's handwritten draft of the MIA's response,
portions of which were quoted in the Montgomery Advertiser on
24 January.
You have probably received a statement release from
Commissioner Clyde Sellers stating that the Montgomery bus protest is
nearing an end as a result of a meeting with a group of Negro ministers,
city bus line officials, and the city Commission. If this release gives
the impression that [strikeout illegible] an agreement has been
reached, it is totally erroneous. The city has If there
were any ministers in a meeting with the city Commission on Saturday,
I assure you that they do not represent even a modicum of the Negro bus
riders. {More than 99 percent of the} The Negro citizens of Mont have
stated their position and it remains the same. The bus protest is still
on and it will last until our proposals are given sympathetic consideration
through our appointed leaders.
The Montgomery Improvement Ass.
Rev. M. L. King Jr., Pres.
Rev. U. J. Fields, Secr
ALdS. MLKP-MBU:
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