Critical analysis of the article by Carson, Clayborne. 2005.“To Walk in Dignity: TheMontgomery Bus Boycott.”with the method of REEC

King reads a prepared statement to about 2,500 persons attending mass meetings at Holt Street and First Baptist Churches.

1 He urges “the Negro citizens of Montgomery to return to the busses tomorrow morning on a non-segregated basis.”

2 A Birmingham News account of the meetings reported that he admitted “it is true we got more out of this (boycott) than we went in for. We started out to get modified segregation (on buses) but we got total integration.

3 At six A.M. the following morning King joined E. D. Nixon, Ralph Abernathy, and Glenn Smiley on one of the first integrated buses. During the initial day of desegregated bus seating there were only a few instances of verbal abuse and occasional violence.

4 For more than twelve months now, we, the Negro citizens of Montgomery have been engaged in a non-violent protest against injustices and indignities experienced on city buses Often our movement has been referred to as a boycott movement. The word boycott, however, does not adequately describe the true spirit of our movement. The word boycott is suggestive of merely an economic squeeze devoid of any positive value.

5. We have struggle against tremendous odds to maintain alternative transportation. We have lived under the agony and darkness of Good Friday with the conviction that one day the heightening glow of Easter would emerge on the horizon.

i would lay on the ground, and wait for the earth to simply take me back!

- sincerely, ouma