Morris Thomas defying segregated bus seating - Tallahassee, Florida

Title

• Morris Thomas defying segregated bus seating - Tallahassee, Florida

Image Number

• RC12424

Year

• 1956

Date Note

• Photographed on December 27, 1956.

Series Title

• General: Reference collection

General Note

• For nearly seven months in 1956, Tallahassee African Americans would not ride the city buses in protest of the segregated seating. As a result of the boycott, 21 members of the Inter Civic Council were convicted on charges of operating an illegal tranportation system set up as a car pool without a franchise. They were fined $11,000. On December 24th, Reverend C.K. Steele, Reverend A.C. Redd and Reverend H. McNeal Harris rode several buses sitting close to the front. Reverend J. Meta Rollins and Reverend Dan B. Speed also defied the seating convention on several buses that day. On December 27, 1956 a planned front riding bus demonstration was called off when a group of about 200 whites gathered near the Park Avenue/Monroe Street bus transfer point.



General Note

• Accompanying note: "Morris Thomas refused this Tallahassee bus driver's request to move to the back of the bus. Thomas lived in Midway, but was home on leave from the Navy. He heard about a possible demonstration, did not know it had been called off and was probably the third black in Tallahassee to defy the convention."

Physical Description

• 1 photoprint - b&w - 10 x 8 in.

Subject Term

• Civil rights movements
• Discrimination in public accommodations
• Buses
• Jim Crow

Geographic Term

• Tallahassee (Fla)
• Leon County (Fla)

Personal Subject

• Thomas, Morris

Subject Corporate

• United States--Navy--African Americans

Shelf Number

• Shelf number: 07782.

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