Browder v. Gayle, 142F. Supp. 707 (1956),[1] was a landmark federal court case that ruled that segregation on public transportation was unconstitutional. The case was heard before a three-judge panel of theUnited States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama on thesegregation ofMontgomery andAlabama state buses. The panel consisted of Middle District of Alabama JudgeFrank Minis Johnson, Northern District of Alabama JudgeSeybourn Harris Lynne, and Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals JudgeRichard Rives.[2] The main plaintiffs in the case wereAurelia Browder,Claudette Colvin,Susie McDonald, andMary Louise Smith.[3] Their attorney,Fred Gray, also approached Jeanetta Reese to join the suit, but intimidation by segregationists (including threatening phone calls and pressure from a senior police officer for whom she worked) caused her to withdraw.[4]
On June 5, 1956, the District Court ruled 2–1, with Lynne dissenting, that bus segregation is unconstitutional under theEqual Protection Clause of the14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.[1]
The state and city appealed, and the decision was summarily affirmed by theUnited States Supreme Court on November 13, 1956, effectively banning segregation on public transportation federally.[5]
On March 2, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, 15-year-oldClaudette Colvin became the first person to be arrested for her refusal to give up her seat to white patrons boarding the bus. She was arrested on multiple charges as a result of her refusal before she was able to present her case before the U.S. District Court. The following month,Aurelia Browder became the second person to be arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white patron on April 19, 1955 (note that some online sources, likely incorrectly, give this date as April 29).[6][7] Six months later in October 1955Mary Louise Smith andSusie McDonald were arrested for the same offense.[8][9][10] Mary Louise Smith was arrested on October 21 and held in jail for two hours before being released and fined.[11] There are conflicting accounts regarding the exact date of Susie McDonald's arrest in October 1955.
Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus on December 1, 1955. After calling her mother from jail, her mom contactedE.D. Nixon, president of theNAACP and secretary of the newMontgomery Improvement Association, who was able to haveClifford Durr (a white lawyer who, with his wife,Virginia Durr, was an activist in theCivil Rights Movement) pay the fine to bring her home. Beginning the following week, the NAACP had volunteers handing out pamphlets to promote a day long bus protest in response to the arrest of Rosa Parks.
Shortly after beginning theMontgomery bus boycott in December 1955,black community leaders began to discuss filing a federal lawsuit to challenge the City ofMontgomery andAlabama bussegregation laws. They sought a declaratory judgment that Alabama state statutes and ordinances of the city of Montgomery providing for and enforcing racial segregation on "privately"-operated buses were in violation ofFourteenth Amendment protections for equal treatment.[12]
The cause of action was brought underReconstruction-era civil rights legislation, specifically42 U.S.C. sections 1981, 1983.[13] TheUnited States District Court hadoriginal jurisdiction to hear the case because it was a federal question (section 1331)[14] and because it concerned civil rights (section 1343).[15] A three-judge district court panel was required under 28 U.S.C. § 2281[16] for the granting of an interlocutory or the permanent injunction restraining the enforcement of a state statute by restraining the action of a state officer, such as an official of theAlabama Public Service Commission. The court held that since officials admitted that they were enforcing state statutes, a three-judge court had jurisdiction over the case.
About two months after the bus boycott began, civil rights activists reconsidered the case ofClaudette Colvin.Fred Gray,E.D. Nixon, andClifford Durr searched for the ideal case law to challenge the constitutional legitimacy of Montgomery and Alabama bus segregation laws.
Durr was concerned that an appeal of Parks's case would get tied up in the Alabama state courts and thought that they needed a way to get directly to federal courts.Gray did research for the lawsuit and consulted withNAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneysRobert L. Carter andThurgood Marshall who ultimately helped them decide to approachClaudette Colvin,Aurelia Browder,Susie McDonald,Mary Louise Smith, andJeanetta Reese, all women who had been discriminated against by drivers enforcing segregation policy in the Montgomery bus system. They agreed to become plaintiffs in a federal civil action lawsuit, thus bypassing the Alabama court system. Reese dropped out of the case in February 1956 because of intimidation by members of the white community.[4] She falsely claimed she had not agreed to the lawsuit, which led to an unsuccessful attempt to disbar Gray for supposedly improperly representing her.[17] Furthermore,Fred Gray also attempted to interview men to join the case, however they were too fearful to spearhead the fight.[12]
On February 1, 1956, Gray filed the caseBrowder v. Gayle in U.S. District Court which would charge the defendantsW. A. Gayle (mayor of Montgomery), city commissioners Clyde Sellers and Frank Parks, Goodwyn Ruppenthal (theChief of police), The Montgomery City Lines, Inc., and members of theAlabama Public Service Commission.[1]
On June 5, 1956, the District Court ruled that "the enforced segregation of black and white passengers on motor buses operating in the City of Montgomery violates the Constitution and laws of the United States" because the conditions deprived people ofequal protection under theFourteenth Amendment. The court further discouraged Alabama and Montgomery from continuing to operate segregated buses.
The state and city appealed the district court's decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. On November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court summarily affirmed the District Court's ruling and ordered Alabama and Montgomery to desegregate its buses. One month later, on December 17, the Supreme Court denied the state's petition for rehearing, and on December 20, the ruling was implemented after Gayle was handed official written notice by federal marshals.
In 2019 a statue ofRosa Parks was unveiled in Montgomery, Alabama, and four granite markers were also unveiled near the statue on the same day to honor four plaintiffs inBrowder v. Gayle[18][19] -Aurelia Browder,Susie McDonald,Claudette Colvin, andMary Louise Smith.[3] One of those plaintiffs, Mary Louise Smith, took part in the unveiling ceremony.[18]
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