On June 17, 1957, the Tuskegee Boycott began. In response to a gerrymandering plan passed by the Alabama Legislature that targeted Black voters, Black residents launched a powerful economic protest.
The legislation, known as Act 140, redrew Tuskegee’s city boundaries to exclude nearly all Black voters — more than 400 — effectively stripping them of their right to vote in municipal elections.
In response, Black residents organized a boycott of white-owned businesses that lasted four years. Despite immense pressure, residents held firm, refusing to spend money in a city that denied them political power.
In 1960, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the act unconstitutional, marking a major civil rights victory and demonstrating the power of sustained grassroots resistance.
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