The bus boycott Montgomery studied, Southern University and the Human Jukebox.
The 1953 Bus Boycott
In 1953 Black residents made up most of the riders on Baton Rouge's buses. Rev. T. J. Jemison of Mount Zion Baptist Church complained to the city council about segregated seating, and on June 19, 1953, the community launched a boycott. The churches quickly set up a free ride system: congregants drove Black residents to work in their own cars, and church collections paid for the gas.
The boycott ended after about a week with a compromise, but it has been called the first major battle of the modern civil rights movement. When the Montgomery bus boycott began in 1955, Martin Luther King Jr. called Jemison to ask how to organize a car pool, and Montgomery adopted Baton Rouge's nightly mass meetings too.
Southern University And The Human Jukebox
In 1880 the Louisiana legislature chartered Southern University for Colored Students in New Orleans, and classes began in March 1881 with a dozen students. In 1914 it moved to Scotlandville, just north of Baton Rouge. Today it is the flagship of the Southern University System and the largest historically Black university in Louisiana.
Since 1947 its marching band, the Human Jukebox, has represented the university at the Rose Parade, presidential inaugurations and six Super Bowl halftime shows.
Sitman's Drugstore
Southern University students sat at the whites-only lunch counter at Sitman's Drugstore in Baton Rouge and quietly stayed when they were asked to move, and the management called the police. In Garner v. Louisiana in 1961, the Supreme Court found no evidence their conduct could have disturbed the peace and ruled the state had denied them due process. Justice William O. Douglas wrote that the police are supposed to be on the side of the Constitution, not on the side of discrimination.
Black Baton Rouge Today
From Scotlandville to Mount Zion Baptist, Baton Rouge's Black history is part of Louisiana's capital, and Black-owned restaurants, salons, shops and brands are part of everyday Baton Rouge.
Shop Black-owned businesses in Baton Rouge on CashBlack.
Photo Credits
The entrance to Southern University and A&M College. Photo: 2C2K Photography, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons