History UnderfootAtlanta
  • Transit
  • Segregation
  • Jan. 9, 1957 to Jan. 20, 1959
  • City of Atlanta
  • Location approximate

The 1957 bus protest and the end of bus segregation (1959)

On January 9, 1957 six Black ministers from Rev. William Holmes Borders's Triple L movement boarded a downtown bus and sat in front. Their arrests led to a federal ruling that ended segregated seating two years later.

See it on the map All Segregation records

The record

Borders announced the Love, Law and Liberation (Triple L) Movement on January 8, 1957 at Wheat Street Baptist Church to a crowd of more than 1,200. The next day six ministers boarded a bus at Mitchell and Whitehall streets and took front seats; the driver changed the sign to 'Special' and drove to the garage. The ministers were arrested the following afternoon at Wheat Street. On January 9, 1959 a federal district court ruled for them, relying on the Montgomery decision (Browder v. Gayle), and on January 20 Borders told riders to 'sit where you want to on the buses and trolleys' (NGE). By 1960 Black riders made up almost 60 percent of rush-hour bus patrons.

Today: The corner of Mitchell St and Peachtree St SW (historically Whitehall St), a few blocks south of Five Points.