Ten Negro ministers and 105 other persons involved in the Negro boycott of buses in Montgomery, Alabama, have been indicted by a local grand jury on charges of illegal action, and a large but orderly crowd of Negroes has watched them to-day being transported under arrest to the county gaol.
By early afternoon 40 Negroes had been arrested, including the ministers and Mrs. Rosa Parks, the woman whose refusal to occupy the "coloured" section of a bus three months ago led to the boycott. Mrs. Parks was convicted then of violating local segregation laws and fined 14 dollars: her appeal has now been rejected by Judge Eugene Carter, who said he would uphold both city and State segregation laws and directed Mrs. Parks to pay the fine and costs. She has announced that she will make a further appeal to the State Supreme Court.
All those arrested to-day have been fingerprinted, photographed, and released under a standard 300 dollar bond.
The grand jury, of 17 white men and one Negro, said the boycott had begun with 18 members of the "inter-denominational alliance," composed mostly of Negro ministers, which had set up the "Montgomery Improvement Association" and had spent so far about 18,000 dollars on the boycott.
"Distrust, dislike, and hatred," the jury's report continued, "are being taught in a community which for more than a generation has enjoyed exemplary race relations." Small incidents have been magnified, it was said, and ugly rumours were being spread among both races. If this trend continued, violence was inevitable.
.lcThe bus boycott in 1956 was the spark which set the civil rights movement alight, but at the time no-one realised how significant the protest would turn out to be. The protests of the civil rights movement provided unique experience for women activists
