Which protest campaign in the American civil rights movement became a symbol of nonviolent resistance and began with a boycott in Montgomery, Alabama?

• A. March on Washington
• B. Montgomery Bus Boycott
• C. Greensboro Sit-Ins
• D. Freedom Rides

Answer: (B)

Nonviolent resistance backed by collective economic pressure is the key idea here. The Montgomery Bus Boycott grew out of a community response in Montgomery, Alabama after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus. Led by the Montgomery Improvement Association with leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., Black residents as a unified group stopped riding the buses for about 381 days. The sustained, peaceful refusal to patronize the segregated system drew national attention, showed how a well-organized, nonviolent strategy could pressure change, and ultimately led to a court ruling that bus segregation was unconstitutional. Because of its scale, its reliance on nonviolence, and its clear payoff in desegregating public transportation, this campaign became the enduring symbol of nonviolent resistance in the civil rights movement.

Other campaigns—such as large marches, sit-ins, or interstate rides—were crucial parts of the movement as well, but they don’t originate from Montgomery as a boycott nor carry the same emblematic status as this Montgomery-based nonviolent boycott.