Poet Antoinette Brooks, author and illustrator of story in verse ‘The Boy at the Back of the Bus’, delves into how Martin Luther King Jr’s teenage stand helped him change history.
On a windy April evening in 1944, a young Martin Luther King Jr made a decision which changed his life.
He sat down at the front of a segregated bus and refused to move.
He was fifteen and had just won a public speaking contest, beating hundreds of other teenagers, when he and his teacher boarded a bus, ready for the long, winding journey back to his hometown in Atlanta, Georgia. But instead of taking his place at the back of the bus as the laws of the time dictated, Martin decided to make what might have been his first public stand against discrimination and sit at the front.
Growing up under segregation
Born in 1926, Martin Luther King Jr grew up in a loving household where he was initially shielded from the worst effects of the Jim Crow laws, a system of laws established after the end of the American Civil War to keep black and white races separate. In theory, this was meant to be “separate but equal,” but in practice it limited the rights of Black citizens, condemning them from childhood to a lifetime of poor treatment and inferior facilities. His first experience of segregation was when his childhood friend, a white boy whose father owned a shop nearby, started attending an all-white school and refused to play with him again.
Public parks were closed to Martin and other black children. Cinemas, restaurants, and waiting rooms were all strictly segregated. However, his mother reinforced his sense of self – reminding him that he and their community were worthy of love and respect. His father, a local community leader and Baptist preacher, instilled in him the importance of standing up to the system of segregation whilst also forgiving those who discriminated against them.
Throughout his childhood, Martin grappled with the concept of showing love to those who treated them so harshly. But it was his ability to stand up to segregation whilst speaking a message of love, which his parents taught him, that later distinguished him as an adult. He later said, “Mother dear, I’m going to turn this whole world upside down.”
The Boy at the Back of the Bus
The Boy at the Back of the Bus is a narrative poem for children which explores this emotional journey for Martin Luther King Jr, from his childhood to early adulthood, including the pivotal moment on the bus journey home when a group of white passengers entered the bus and abused him for remaining in his seat. Martin was determined to stay where he was, and it was only the urging of his teacher, concerned for his safety, that finally made him move. He later recalled, “That night will never leave my memory. It was the angriest I have ever felt in my life.”
Martin Luther King Jr’s story remains relevant for children, challenging them to see beyond racial divisions and imagine a future of mutual love and respect. As a child who continuously encountered racism, Martin demonstrated the importance of resilience, and using the power of community to bring together the different voices who were fighting for social justice. In Martin’s role as a spokesperson and leader of the early Civil Rights Movement, ordinary men and women, and young children, whose names might have now been forgotten, played a vital role in campaigning for change. And in a world that is often still divided by racial issues, his story of peacefully standing up to injustice, whilst showing forgiveness, remains more important than ever.
Antoinette Brooks is the author and illustrator of story in verse ‘The Boy at the Back of the Bus’, part of Big Cat’s new series of contemporary poetry. Find out more here.