After thoughts on The Montgomery Bus Boycott: A Story in Pictures

After my brief foray into the world of photo essays I came to one cliché, yet all too true conclusions. It's a lot harder than it looks. I didn't initially think that the grown up version of a photo book would be all that difficult to put together, until I attempted to sit down and do it myself. I think I had the most difficulty choosing a topic that I'd be able to find at least 5 pictures for that I could connect and be able to tell a little history about each and how it plays into the topic. I tried to stray away from topics that I already had strong backgrounds in but it came to a point that denying my previous knowledge and acting as a complete newbie to some topics only lead to frustrations when trying to set up a lay-out for the essay.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was far from my first topic, but after many failed attempts to being too creative for my own good I settled on a topic I knew I'd be able to meet all the requirements. Even then this was far from an easy process. Finding the right pictures and verify who’s in them and when they were taken was a bit of a tedious process but I respect the necessity of it.

On the positive side when all is said and done I believe I’ve put together a brief yet informative summary of a major turning point in American society in a non-typical manner that is easy for all ages and education levels to follow. An online photo essay is one of the fewer types of internet publications that are able to cross the gap in terms of audience receptivity. For someone with no background in the subject this photo essay serves as an informative jumping off point, and for someone who already has knowledge in the subject they are able to view 5 relevant pictures in one place saving them the trip of having to scour the vast internet to pull each photograph individually.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott: A Story in Pictures

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was an effort by Montgomery, Alabama, blacks to end segregation on city buses by boycotting the vehicles that occurred from December 5, 1955 to December 20, 1956. At the time city ordinances requires blacks to ride in designated sections in the rear of buses and to give up their seat to the request of a white person. There was also rampant violent treatment of African Americans by white city bus drivers.

This first photo is the inside of an empty Montgomery City Bus courtesy of Africanaonline (www.africanaonline.com/Graphic/rosa_parks_bus.gif)

The final catalyst leading up to the Boycott was the arrest of Rosa Parks, forty-two-year-old black seamstress and former secretary of local NAACP, for refusing to surrender her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white male passenger on December 1, 1955. She was exactly the type of person that black leaders were waiting for to violate the Jim Crow laws to launch a massive campaign behind

This photo is of Rosa Parks being fingerprinted after her arrest on December 1, 1955. Courtesy of Wikipedia (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d2/Rosaparksarrested.jpeg/225px-Rosaparksarrested.jpeg)

Finally with a respectable figure, E.D Nixon began organizing with other black leaders to begin a boycott of the Montgomery Municipal buses. What grew from a one day-day boycott extended until the city met the demands of the Montgomery Improvement Association. It also was the first place for Martin Luther King Jr to articulate his philosophy of nonviolent protest and gain experience using black church networks for strategy and motivational speeches.

Pictured here African American women walk along the sidewalk during a bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala., in February, 1956. Courtesy of USA today
(http://images.usatoday.com/news/_photos/2005/11/29/montgomery-inside.jpg)

This was not an easy road however. Several leaders of the boycott were arrested for causing disturbances and threatened with serious jail-time. Even some of the homes of boycott leaders were fire-bombed by white-extremists during the course of the boycott.

This next photo is of Martin Luther King Jr. on February 4, 1956 giving a speech about non-violence and urging peace from his porch despite his home just being fire-bombed. As provided by Corbis Corporation (http://pro.corbis.com/popup/Enlargement.aspx?mediauids=%7b6e11ed9f-a183-4e57-acc2-d7227c9b074d%7d%7bffffffff-ffff-ffff-ffff-ffffffffffff%7d&qsPageNo=1&fdid=&Area=Search&TotalCount=43&CurrentPos=18&WinID=%7b6e11ed9f-a183-4e57-acc2-d7227c9b074d%7d)

King was also charged and convicted for his role in the bus boycotts. However he took the conviction proudly and it was widely celebrated. This would be the first of many King arrests in his life of non-violent protest. The boycott would continue until the decision of federal district court, affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court, declaring segregation on municipal buses unconstitutional, December 1956 (Browder v. Gayle).

The final photo is of Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King Jr. and several others celebrating his conviction on March 23, 1956 in front of the Montgomery Courthouse. Courtesy of Corbis Corporation (http://pro.corbis.com/popup/Enlargement.aspx?mediauids={a2ca535a-94ef-44c7-8514-9d4ba4604896}{ffffffff-ffff-ffff-ffff-ffffffffffff}&qsPageNo=1&fdid=&Area=Search&TotalCount=43&CurrentPos=9&WinID={a2ca535a-94ef-44c7-8514-9d4ba4604896})

The History of Psychology Web Site Review

For my in-depth website review, I chose to analyze the University of Dayton’s History of Psychology Web Site (http://elvers.udayton.edu/history/welcome.htm). At first glance I thought I had found a wall-laid out and interactive archive of information that ranged all throughout the ages from ancient Greek philosophers to modern psychologists. However, after further review I was left with mixed feelings about a website that serves as little more than an index to other websites. However, in the grand scheme of legitimate internet research we must keep in mind that, while some researchers may have been disappointed by the lack of on-site original resources, someone who is just beginning their research and is hoping to be pointed in the right direction can find a litany of beginner resources to help them form ideas on their own research. The site can serve as a cross between a teaching resource, and a conglomeration of outside Electronic Essay/Exhibit’s.

From a pure content standpoint it’s difficult to truly gauge the strength of the content of the site because for the most part all the site really does is link to other sites that actually have the content. That being said, the majority of the links go to sites of other universities and scholarly sites that have good reputations. The Dayton site remains very neutral in its essentially non-existing opinion on the matters it focuses on. The only part of the website which really reflects their opinion is the division and grouping of topics by categories. Some of the links do not function correctly but these were few and far between. Even the interpretations taken by the sites linked to by the page maintain a relatively neutral, biographical stance on the people the site is focused on

The web site itself is very clearly laid out and easy to navigate as should hopefully be expected from a website that navigates researchers from their site to a site with the information they are searching for. The design of the site is nothing groundbreaking or particularly beautiful, but it is effective and to the point, which plays strong to those who want more focus on content then just the look and feel of the site. While the site claims that some sections of the site are only available to Ohio LINK member institutions, the majority of the sites are accessible to all users. The structure of the website is organized into 5 index schemes of people by birth date, people by birth date; people alphabetically, categories, library resources, and trivia.

The website is quite clear on who its audience is, to the point where it even states on its homepage that it is “a gateway for teachers and students to over 1000 World Wide Web resources related to the history of psychology”. If viewed from a standpoint of whether it will serve this audience, it most likely will. I base that opinion on the website meaning high school teachers and students (predominantly AP/IB classes). Judging by the difficulty of the content of the website, it would not be sufficient for most college and post graduate studies research, but it would suit most high school research efforts.

In terms of new media, The History of Psychology Web Site doesn’t do a whole lot out of the ordinary that couldn’t be accomplished in other media. However, I don’t believe the point of this particular website is display history through innovative methods of technology. Boiled down to its basis, the website is a gathering of links, organized by a person or topic, to facilitate beginning research on more advanced topics. When looking at the site through this lens, it is very difficult to find any area in which it is appropriate, or even possible to use new media. This website saves researchers a trip to a cumbersome library filled with dead ends and a weak filing system.