By Kenneth Mullinax/ASU
Alabama State University's National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African American Culture (National Center) will commemorate the 69th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott on Thursday, Dec. 5, at 11 a.m. The historic protest began on December 5, 1955, after Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of a segregated Montgomery City Bus, sparking a yearlong boycott that laid the foundation for the modern civil rights movement.
The National Center’s program, titled “The Montgomery Bus Boycott in Film—Untold Truths, Distorted Facts, and Forgotten Heroes?,” takes place in the gallery of the National Park Service's Montgomery Interpretative Center, located on Harris Way near The ASU Stadium.
Dr. Dorothy Autrey, a consultant for the National Center and the retired chairwoman of ASU's Department of History and Political Science, is helping to coordinate the program.
"Our program describes how the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Montgomery Improvement Association, with the cooperation of 50,000 Blacks in the city of Montgomery, defeated the system of bus segregation in the city under the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.," Autrey said. "The National Center's program will examine the depiction of events and individuals portrayed in general release films to expose any inadequacies which may tarnish the movement’s legacy and fail to honor heroes who also played important roles in the event."