A month later, when the Supreme Court refused to reconsider its decision, the city of Montgomery finally accepted defeat. After 381 days, the bus boycott was over, and so was the national illusion that Black Americans were willing to abide by the nation’s crushing racial order. National news reporters were not accustomed to covering racial protests that ended in victory. But the legal battle for justice had turned with Brown v. Board of Education. Now, with the bus boycott, the psychological battle had turned, too. The Montgomery experience gave African Americans a new leader and a new
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