How did the African American Community stop bus segregation without any violence? It might have been due to their Loyalty. Empathy. Drive. Resilience. There were many reasons that bus segregation was made illegal, and all of them date back to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was successful because African Americans stayed loyal to their cause and because the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) did not advocate violence.

First, African Americans stayed loyal to their cause no matter the hardships they endured. Caucasian bus drivers were severely affected by the bus boycott and lost a lot of business, as highlighted in the Robinson Letter. “Three-fourths of the riders of these public conveyances [buses] are Negroes. If Negroes did not patronize them, they could not possibly operate.” Robinson was right; in the American History Textbook, it stated that “For months, the buses were almost empty because most of the riders had been Black.” They needed African American customers to stay in business. Because the buses were going out of business, however, African Americans were beaten up and abused by the police in an attempt to stop the boycott. In Bayard Rustin’s diary, an African American civil rights activist, it stated that “the police began to harass, intimidate, and arrest Negro taxi drivers who were helping these people to work… 28 of them had just been arrested on charges of conspiring to destroy to bus company… they pledged that they would be arrested again and again.” As demonstrated in the diary entrance, all of those who assisted in the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott stayed loyal to the movement no matter what sufferings they endured. They believed in what they were doing, as stated in the Highlander School Letter. It says, “I think they are going to win it. The Montgomery Bus Boycott]” All African Americans believed in the movement, and it was partly thanks to their belief and loyalty that it succeeded.

Also, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was successful because the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) did not advocate violence. According to the Martin Luther King Jr. Speech, “we have not advocated violence, have not practiced it…” Because the MIA did not use any violence, any actions that Caucasian people took against them was seen as brutal and cruel, aiding the cause of the MIA. Even through beatings, they refused to back down, as Martin Luther King Jr. said in his speech. “Ours is a spiritual movement depending on moral and spiritual fortitude.” All the protesters believed that God was on their side, also talked about in the Martin Luther King Jr. speech. “I believe that God is using Montgomery as his proving ground.”  With belief in God, and with a nonviolent movement, the African Americans pushed the bus boycott to success.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was successful because African Americans stayed loyal to their cause and because the MIA did not advocate violence. African Americans stayed loyal to their cause no matter the hardships they endured, never once acting against White people in the same way Caucasians abused them during their boycott. With a no-violence stance, the MIA made sure that the boycott succeeded. It was only thanks to the African American loyalty, belief, and non-violence movement that they succeeded in desegregating buses.