Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail

— Near Early and Oak Streets —

The civil rights movement in Montgomery was born from the support
of both organized groups and individual residents. The day-in-day-out support came from local citizens, who were guided by groups on both the local and the national level.

The Montgomery lmprovement Association (MIA) was formed in
Montgomery at Mt. Zion AME Zion Church on December 5, 1955 by black ministers and community leaders. Under the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Edgar Nixon, the MIA was instrumental in guiding the Montgomery bus boycott the nonviolent protest campaign that first focused national attention on segregation and catapulted King into the national spotlight. The MIA utilized carpools and weekly gatherings with sermons and music to keep morale high.


The MIA coordinated with the larger National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on legal challenges to the city's bus segregation ordinance. The MIA helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in January 1957. The SCLC and the national Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), founded in 1960, brought different approaches to activism. These newer groups, along with the MIA, relied on mass mobilization rather than litigation and legislation to advance the rights of black citizens. Ultimately the organizations and the individuals guaranteed the legacy of the movement.

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Show me all markers in:  Montgomery, AL  |  Montgomery County  |  36108  |  Alabama  |  United States of America

Bethel Missionary Baptist Church
Charlie and Lucille Times
Home of Dr. E. D. Nixon, Sr.
Percy Lavon Julian
Holt Street Baptist Church
Loveless School/Henry Allen Loveless
From Bus Boycott to Voting Rights: Community Activism 1955-65
Bertha Pleasant Williams Library
Rosa Parks Branch Library / Bertha Pleasant Williams
Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church

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