The Montgomery bus situation was a very significant event in the African-American rights protest. Martin Luther King Jr., an avid protestor throughout these series of events, told his audience that in order to be successful in their protest they would have to stick together. He stated, "Unity is the great need of the hour, and if we are united we can get many of the things that we not only desire, but also what we justly deserve."
King ordered that in their protest his followers refrain form the use of violence. He did not want them, in any way, to defy the laws of the Constitution. He assured the audience that they would not be compared to the Ku Klux Klan or with the White Citizens Council. "We only assemble here because of our desire to see right exist."
Martin Luther King Jr. believed that Rosa Parks was the perfect person to be put in the situation in Montgomery because no one could question her integrity. She had no background of previous protest and was considered one of the finest citizens in Montgomery, not only Negroes, but in all of Montgomery. After Rose's arrest, the Negro community's tempers were flaring.
In the speech King made on December 5th, 1955, he states that the press tried to get the public to believe that Parks refused to leave a reserved section for Negroes. When in fact, there was no reserved section. After Rosa was arrested, King made a statement saying that if they were declared wrong in their protest, which, in the Constitution, is stated as a right to all United States citizens, then the Constitution itself is wrong.
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