This paper explains that the motivating force behind the Montgomery Bus Boycott was a lone African-American woman, Rosa Parks,
who defied a well-entrenched law of the period that blacks were required to sit at the back of the bus, to enter the bus through rear doors and to yield their seats to white passengers if seating was limited. The author points out that the young Martin Luther King, Jr. was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), an
organization of the various groups that had participated in arranging the boycott, joined forces and named the organization. When it came time to elect a president, King found himself thrust into the
position. The paper relates that, while the initial intentions of the bus boycott were far from revolutionary, the event gained national and international attention; not only did it elevate Martin Luther King Jr. to the position of de facto leader of the Civil Rights Movement, but also it established his doctrine of non-violent resistance as a primary method by which the movement would enact social change.