One of the biggest misconceptions about the Montgomery bus boycott is that it hurt the city or the politicians.
When the Montgomery Improvement Association organized its boycott, the leaders understood that, like many other municipalities, the city’s bus system was privately run. Mayor William A. Gayle and the white Alabamians were unfazed by the revenue losses the city incurred. Gayle was even re-elected for a second term.
But National Bus Lines, the company that ran Montgomery’s public transportation system, lost so much money that it had to shutter some of its bus routes. The solidarity in the Black community caused the white bus drivers to lose money and forced white workers to find a ride to work. More than seven months before the Supreme Court’s Gayle v. Browder decision ended the boycott, the bus company ordered its drivers to stop being so segregation-y…