The Baton Rouge free-ride system—quickly organized by the city's black churches to offer car rides to bus boycotters—was studied later by Martin Luther King Jr. as a model to copy on a larger scale in Montgomery, Alabama.
Although overshadowed by the more famous Montgomery bus boycott of 1955–56, the action taken in 1953 by the African-American community in Baton Rouge has come to be recognized as a pivotal early event in the civil rights movement.
In early February, Reverend T.J. Jemison of Mount Zion Baptist Church complained to the City Council about blacks having to stand in the overcrowded rear section while reserved "white" seats were empty.
Mayor Jesse Webb and the council, with the support and guidance of City Attorney Gordon King, unanimously approved Ordinance 222 on March 11, 1953.
[5] In fact, the ordinance was not well-publicized; most residents were unaware of its contents, and the city's all-white bus drivers failed to observe the rule changes.
[8] White's act of civil disobedience followed a few similar incidents in the preceding weeks in which Baton Rouge black residents, Rev.
The driver grew so frustrated, he drove the bus directly to the police station; however, the officers declined to arrest Jemison because, technically speaking, he was not breaking the law.
[9] During the heated clash on June 15, bus company manager H. D. Cauthen arrived on the scene and told the recalcitrant driver to obey the City Council ordinance.
On that day, Louisiana Attorney General Fred LeBlanc declared Ordinance 222 "unconstitutional because it did not specifically reserve seats for whites and blacks.
In response to the overturning of Ordinance 222, Jemison joined with the city's black businessmen and church leaders to form the United Defense League (UDL).
[5] The churches quickly organized a makeshift free-ride system that today might be termed a ride-share or carpool program, with parishioners using their personal vehicles to drive other black residents to and from their jobs.
[8] The free-ride system, which operated from 5:00 a.m. till midnight, had to be free or it would have been shut down by the city government as an unlicensed taxi service.
The Baton Rouge bus company was feeling the pain of the boycott since black passengers represented two-thirds of its normal revenue.
[2] On June 25, at a McKinley High School meeting attended by 7,000 people in Memorial Stadium, the Ordinance 251 compromise was accepted, albeit grudgingly and under protest by those who wanted to keep the boycott going.
[5] For the remainder of the decade, the achievements of the boycott inspired the city's black residents to continue mobilizing around racial justice issues, such as desegregating eating establishments.
Although the compromise did not provide a complete victory for black bus riders, the boycott itself illustrated the power of peaceful resistance to force concessions and, in so doing, influenced the civil rights movement that followed.
Aldon Morris called it "the starting point", "the first major battle of the modern civil rights movement", and "the first evidence that the system of racial segregation could be challenged by mass action.
"[13] In June 2003, the boycott's 50th anniversary was honored in Baton Rouge with three days of events organized by a 30-year old white resident, Marc Sternberg.
"[15] In 2004, Louisiana Public Broadcasting aired a documentary film entitled Signpost to Freedom: The 1953 Baton Rouge Bus Boycott that sought, in its words, "to bring this remarkable, untold story to millions of Americans.
The bench commemorating the Baton Rouge bus boycott was unveiled on February 6, 2016 at the McKinley High School Alumni Center.
[17] At the time of her death in 2021, Martha White was recognized as an unsung heroine of the civil rights movement who, like Rosa Parks would do two and a half years later in Montgomery, defied segregation on city buses.