The inspirational actions of Rosa Parks and the galvanizing words of Martin Luther King Jr. could take effect only if ordinary black citizens found a way to keep the boycott alive on a day-to-day basis. The business transacted at meetings of the Montgomery Improvement Association, a group of black ministers and community leaders under King’s leadership, often involved the nitty-gritty details of keeping the boycott alive, as well as “rules” for how protestors should deal with being arrested and for how leaders should interact with the press.
Minutes of the Montgomery Improvement Association Founding Meeting
A group of 18 persons met at the Mt. Zion A.M.E. Zion Church at 3 p.m.
Officers were elected:
Chairman — Rev. M. L. King
Vice Chairman — Rev. Roy Bennett
Recording Sec. — Rev. U. J. Fields
Corresponding Sec. — Rev. E. N. French
Financial Sec. — Mrs. Erna Dungee
Treasurer — E. D. Nixon
Name
The Montgomery Improvement Association
Moved and second that the 16 persons here and a suggestion that 9 names be brought in making 25 which constitute the Executive Committee
Agenda
Presentation of Mrs. Parks, Fred Daniels — Rev. French
Vote on Recommendations
It was recommended that resolutions would be drawned up.
Resolution Committee & Recommendations
Rev. Abernathy Chairman
Rev. Alford
Mr. Gray
Mr. Nixon
Rev. Glasco
The president, Rev. M. L. King, attorney Gray and attorney Langford is on the committee. The program would be tape recorded at its Holt Street Baptist Church.
It was agreed that the protest be continued until conditions are improved.
Transportation Committee
Finance
It was passed that the recommendations from the committee be given to the citizens at the night meeting.
Minutes of the meeting of MIA special committee to consider ways of creating the most wholesome attitude possible among the mass of whites of the city, Tuesday, September 25, 1956, 11:00 a.m.
Those present were: Rev. R. D. Abernathy, Dr. S. S. Seay, Dr. M. L. King Jr., Rev. W. J. Powell, Rev. B. J. Simms, and Mrs. Jo Ann Robinson.
The President made opening remarks in which he said that we must make friends with those who oppose us, we should make our motives clearly understood by the whites of our community, and that, in general, we must move from protest to reconciliation.
After much discussion of ways and means of accomplishing these objectives, the following recommendations were agreed upon to be presented to the Executive Board.
1. We recommend that the local newspapers be contacted in an effort to have them carry a series of articles on the spirit and motive of our movement without or with pay in order to clear up misunderstanding about the same, which articles will be written by persons associated with this organization and duly studied by authorized persons before publication.
2. We recommend also that this same basic information be mailed to influential and representative whites of this city, both those favorably disposed to our movement and those who oppose it. The mailing list for this group to be made up of all white ministers, the Men of Montgomery clubs, the business men of the city, the white women’s organizations, civic and religious, and persons whose names might be submitted by members of the Executive Board.
3. Our third recommendation is that we authorize the President to work with local Radio and T.V. persons in an effort to get a local presentation of our side of this protest movement to the citizenry through these channels, and, if we fail here, to look forward to seeking to appear on “Meet the Press,” a nationwide program.
Finally, it was suggested that an outline of the series of articles should be well planned in advance of any publication. Dr. Seay suggested the topic “I Believe in the Community” as the possible first article.
The meeting then adjourned.
W. J. Powell, Secretary
Dr. M. L. King Jr., President
Source: “December” and “Fall,” in Daybreak of Freedom: The Montgomery Bus Boycott, edited by Stewart Burns (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997), 89, 291–92. Used by permission of the University of North Carolina Press.
Evaluating the Evidence