The Montgomery city code gave discretion to the operators of public vehicles, such as buses, to provide for “equal but separate” accommodations for white and black riders, including even putting the riders on entirely separate vehicles. The city bus drivers, therefore, controlled many of the day-to-day interactions that could, and did, produce tension and frustration for black riders. This source, from the 1956 city code, illustrates the leeway bus drivers had in enforcing the laws of segregation. It was precisely the exercise of this leeway that was galling to passengers such as Rosa Parks, who dealt daily with what they perceived as less a “code” than an arbitrary exercise of petty power.
Sec. 10. Separation of races—Required.
Every person operating a bus line in the city shall provide equal but separate accommodations for white people and negroes on his buses, by requiring the employees in charge thereof to assign passengers seats on the vehicles under their charge in such manner as to separate the white people from the negroes, where there are both white and negroes on the same car; provided, however, that negro nurses having in charge white children or sick or infirm white persons, may be assigned seats among white people.
Nothing in this section shall be construed as prohibiting the operators of such bus lines from separating the races by means of separate vehicles if they see fit.
Sec. 11. Same—Powers of persons in charge of vehicle; passengers to obey directions.
Any employee in charge of a bus operated in the city shall have the powers of a police officer of the city while in actual charge of the bus, for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of the preceding section, and it shall be unlawful for any passenger to refuse or fail to take a seat among those assigned to the race to which he belongs, at the request of such employee in charge, if there is such a seat vacant.
Sec. 12. Failure to carry passengers.
It shall be unlawful for any person operating a bus line in the city to refuse, without sufficient cause, to carry any passenger; provided, that no driver of a bus shall be required to carry any passenger who is intoxicated or disorderly, or who is afflicted with any contagious or infectious disease, or who refuses to pay in advance the fare required, or who for any other reasons deemed satisfactory by the recorder should be excluded.
Source: Code of the City of Montgomery, Alabama (Charlottesville: Michie City Publishing Co., 1952), Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama.
Evaluating the Evidence