The African American Experience in Louisiana

Into this situation entered the Reverend T. J. Jemison. A native of Selma, Alabama,
Jemison observed the situation of black bus riders when he moved to Baton Rouge. With other
community leaders, Jemison presented an idea to the City Council that would improve seating
opportunities for African Americans while maintaining the status quo of segregation. 216 The
council embraced the logical suggestion that black riders be allowed to fill up empty seats on the
bus from the rear with Ordinance 222. Unfortunately the drivers were not well informed of the
new procedures, nor did they embrace them when instructed to comply with the ordinance. An
altercation ensued between one driver and a rider who asserted her right to sit out of exhaustion,
while other riders made a show of solidarity by sitting as well. Drivers went on strike in protest
of the new rules and gained the support of segregationist state attorney general Fred LeBlanc
who declared the Ordinance to be in conflict with state law on June 19th. 217 The drivers thought
they were victorious, but Jemison and members of the United Defense League (UDL) had other
ideas.
That night Reverend Jemison secured a spot on a local radio show and called for a
boycott of the buses and announced a meeting on the subject to be held at Mt. Zion Baptist
Church. So that riders could boycott the buses without sacrificing their employment, Jemison
and the UDL established a free ride system in which people with cars drove the bus routes to
pick up riders. Some whites even contributed rides. Collections were made for gas money and
some gas stations offered wholesale prices for gas. The success of the boycott was immediate;
each day cost the bus company $1,600. At the height of the boycott, Jemison estimated there
were sixty-five to seventy vehicles providing free rides, and attendance of the next boycott rally
was so great it had to be held at McKinley High School. 218 In the midst of this enthusiasm many
felt disappointed when Jemison agreed to a comprise that would revise Ordinance 222 to reserve
two short seats in the front for whites and two long seats in the back for blacks. Though the local
victory was small, the Baton Rouge Bus Boycott had a great impact on the greater Civil Rights
movement. It was the first large scale bus boycott in the nation and it set the precedent for the
later Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Such events were just pieces of Louisiana’s multifaceted Civil Rights movement, which
also included the epic struggle for education equalization and school integration that began in the
1940s . In the 1930s, groups of all kinds began to realize the potential power of their organized
nature in the fight for civil rights. Largely neglected or given a bad deal by New Deal programs,
African American communities looked inward for help during the depression era to their own
relief-oriented organizations and established new associations. This mobilization corresponds
with growing activism for civil rights during this period. 219 In the late 1940s, civil rights
activism was given another infusion of determination when African American veterans returned
from service in World War II. Like veterans before them, they were acutely aware that they
were treated like citizens in the expectation that they risk their lives for the country and should
216 Dean Sinclair, “Equal in All Places: The Civil Rights Struggle in Baton Rouge, 1953-1963,” in The African
American Experience in Louisiana: Part C, ed. Charles Vincent (Lafayette: University of Louisiana at Lafayette,
2002), 440, first published in Louisiana History 39 (1998): 347-66.
217 Fairclough, 159.
218 Sinclair , in Vincent, Part C, 445.
219 Douglas L. Smith, “Black Communities Mobilize,” in The African American Experience in Louisiana: Part C,
ed. Charles Vincent (Lafayette: University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2002), 154, first published as Chapter 12 in
Douglas L. Smith, The New Deal in the Urban South (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University, 1988), 232-59.
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