A PEOPLES HISTORY OF BUS BOYCOTTS: *
Azikwelwa_WE WILL NOT RIDE
1957 South Africa
The 1957 Alexandra Bus Boycott was a protest undertaken against the Public Utility Transport Corporation (PUTCO) by the people of Alexandra in Johannesburg. It is generally recognised as being one of the few successful political campaigns of the Apartheid era, by noted writers and activists including Anthony Sampson and Chief Albert Luthuli[1][2] Ruth First, former wife of South African Communist Party leader Joe Slovo, said of the Boycott, “not since the days of the Defiance Campaign had Africans held so strategic a position.”[3] The bus boycott of Alexandra was launched on 7 January 1957; but it was later joined by boycotters in from Sophiatown and Newclare in Western Areas of Johannesburg. In Pretoria (Tshwane) it covered the Lady Selborne district, as well as other areas, including Attridgeville, Mamelodi and Ga-Rankua. After two weeks the boycott was joined by the commuters of Moroka-Jabavu in the South Western Areas who came out in sympathy. Many of the latter had moved from Moroka-Jabavu to Alexandra and had had the experiences of its earlier bus boycotts and other struggles. The bus boycott lasted from January 1957 to June 1957. At its height, 70,000 township residents refused to ride the local buses to and from work. For many people this daily journey to downtown Johannesburg was a twenty mile round trip. [4] The boycott was named Azikwelwa (English: We will not ride).[5] Alexandra Township had seen two previous bus boycotts. In August 1943 a nine day boycott succeeded in reducing the fare from 5d to 4d. A second strike began in November 1944 after prices were again raised. The 1957 protest was mobilised after PUTCO again proposed raising its fares from 4d to 5d. With the government refusing to increase its public subsidy to the company, PUTCO argued that a price hike was inevitable. On 7 January 1957, it was resolved by the people of Alexandra to launch the boycott and on the same day the Alexandra People’s Transport Action Committee (APTAC) was formed. The boycott would continue until the four penny fare was restored.
1963 United Kingdom
The Bristol Bus Boycott of 1963 arose from the refusal of the Bristol Omnibus Company to employ Black or Asian bus crews in Bristol, England. In common with other British cities there was widespread discrimination in housing and employment at that time against "coloureds." Led by youth worker Paul Stephenson and the West Indian Development Council, the boycott of the company's buses by Bristolians lasted for four months until the company backed down and overturned the colour bar. The boycott drew national attention to racial discrimination in Britain and the campaign was supported by national politicians, with interventions being made by church groups and the High Commissioner for Trinidad and Tobago. The Bristol Bus Boycott was considered by some to have been influential in the passing of the Race Relations Act 1965 which made "racial discrimination unlawful in public places" and the Race Relations Act 1968, which extended the provisions to employment and housing.
1955-1956 USA
The Montgomery Bus Boycott, a seminal event in the U.S. civil rights movement, was a political and social protest Campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. The campaign lasted from December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks, an African American woman, was arrested for refusing to surrender her seat to a white person, to December 20, 1956, when a federal ruling, Browder v. Gayle, took effect, and led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws requiring segregated buses to be unconstitutional.[1] Many important figures in the civil rights movement took part in the boycott, including Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ralph Abernathy.
*Historical information on Bus Boycotts is sourced to Wikipedia.
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