Representations and memories of E.D. Nixon, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

This thesis concentrates on the issue of the civil rights movement in historical memory. In particular, it focuses on the work of local labor leader E.D. Nixon, who served as an initial planner of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the decision made to choose Martin Luther King Jr. as President of the Montgomery Improvement Association. Furthermore, it studies the subsequent role of both men in the protest, and how the media aided in the creation of King’s image as the leader of the civil rights movement while Nixon remained a figure in the background. Through an investigation of race and class relations in Montgomery, reactions to the boycott in black and white communities, and media coverage of the event, this study examines how those interpretations were then incorporated into the traditional annals of American history.