Black Churches Provide Significant Support for the March and Voting

Black Churches Provide Significant Support for the March and Voting. Holt Street under Interstates 65 and 85. As the social and cultural epicenters of Montgomery's black communities in the 1950s and 1960s, black churches also played a political role, providing sanctuary and strength against discrimination On December 5, 1955 following the first day of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Montgomery Improvement Association was formed at Mt. Zion AME Zion Church. The MIA was established to oversee the continuation of the boycott, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. a young minister new to Montgomery, was elected its chairman president that night. King delivered its first speech just minutes later at the Holt Street Baptist Church down the street with several thousand community members in attendance. He spoke of the need for nonviolent protest coupled with unfailing resolve. King's speech ended to thundering applause, as Ralph Abernathy read the resolutions aloud to the crowd including not to ride the buses until their demands were met. The crowd voted overwhelmingly in favor, and the boycott continued until December 21, 1956 when segregated seating on public buses was abolished in Montgomery, The combination of mass nonviolent protest with Christian ethics became the model for challenging segregation in the South, and the churches in these thriving black communities deserve much of the credit for that success.