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Montgomery NAACP Papers [NN-Sc]).
    31.
Montgomery Advertiser,
January 12, 1955.
    32. Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, “Social and Political Action Committee Digest, Number 2,” January 1955, Folder 15, Box 77, King Papers, Boston University; King Jr.,
Stride toward Freedom,
34–35.
    33.
Alabama Tribune,
January 28, 1955.
    34. Virginia Durr to Corliss Lamont, February 9, 1955, in Sullivan, ed.,
Freedom Writer,
81.
    35. “Negroes’ Most Urgent Needs,” LPR 127, Baskin Papers.
    36. Thornton,
Dividing Lines,
49.
    37. The
Montgomery Advertiser
city editor Joe Azbell devoted a significant portion of his March 1, 1955, editorial to the housing dilemma faced by the city’s African American residents. Noting that some believed “the Negro housing situation will become so critical this year some move will have to be started to open new subdivisions,” Azbell referenced James Holt, the president of the First Federal Savings and Loan Association, who called the housing crisis for blacks in Montgomery the largest housing problem the city faced.” The editor suggested no possible solutions to the problem (Joe Azbell, “City Limits,”
Montgomery Advertiser,
March 1, 1955).
Montgomery Advertiser,
March 20, 1955; J. Mills Thornton, “Challenge and Response in the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955–1956,” in Garrow, ed.,
The Walking City,
336. Thornton examines the demographic and political shifts that occurred in Montgomery in the 1950s. He notes that the “Demographicexploitation of racial tensions promised to counter Birmingham’s exploitation of class tensions and thus to capture support in the eastern wards” where many working-class whites were moving in (335–36). Parks, an ally of Birmingham, defeated the incumbent Cleere, while Gayle returned as mayor. Thornton adds: “The lesson of Parks’s victory appeared to be that, given the new social realities produced by the city’s rapid postwar growth, an East Montgomerian would always defeat a South Montgomerian when the issues remained class oriented. The lesson of Sellers’s victory appeared to be that a vigorous exploitation of racial antipathies could give a South Montgomerian at least a fighting chance of defeating an East Montgomerian. Gayle was, of course, a South Montgomerian. But Gayle’s dilemma was much more complicated than this analysis would imply. First, he was unlikely to abandon a set of beliefs that he had held sincerely for many decades merely because political strategy seemed to dictate this course. Second, developments within the business community rendered it less than certain that a sound strategy actually dictated this course” (337–38).
    38. West, interview by Lee; Virginia Durr to Jessica Mitford, March 1955, in Sullivan, ed.,
Freedom Writer,
84–85. See also Rosa Parks, minutes, Montgomery branch executive committee meeting, March 22, 1955, Montgomery NAACP Papers (NN-Sc).
    39. Virginia Durr to Jessica Mitford, March 1955, April 8, 1955, May 5, 1955, and May 6, 1955, in Sullivan, ed.,
Freedom Writer,
84–87. At an NAACP meeting in July, the attorney Fred Gray indicated he “paid 47.50 for the Claudette Colvin case transcript. Since the violation of the segregation of transportation law charge was dismissed against her, the NAACP has no case but to have her exonerated of the assault and battery charge.” Noting Colvin was on probation and a ward of the state, Gray informed the executive committee that he had filed a motion for a new trial, hoping she would be exonerated due to false arrest. The branch agreed to appeal the Colvin case on these grounds (Rosa Parks, minutes, Montgomery branch executive committee meeting, July 13, 1955, Montgomery NAACP Papers [NN-Sc]).
    40. Abernathy, “The Natural History of a Social Movement,” in Garrow, ed.,
The Walking City,
109–10.
    41. King Jr., “Other Mountains,” May 15, 1955, in
Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
6: 214. See also Trenholm to King, May 2, 1955, ibid., 2: 556–57.
    42. Rosa