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For nearly seven months in 1956, Tallahassee African Americans would not ride the city buses in protest of the segregated seating. As a result of the boycott, 21 members of the Inter Civic Council were convicted on charges of operating an illegal tranportation system set up as a car pool without a franchise. They were fined $11,000. On December 24th, Reverend C.K. Steele, Reverend A.C. Redd and Reverend H. McNeal Harris rode several buses sitting close to the front. Reverend J. Meta Rollins and Reverend Dan B. Speed also defied the seating convention on several buses that day. On December 27, 1956 a planned front riding bus demonstration was called off when a group of about 200 whites gathered near the Park Avenue/Monroe Street bus transfer point.

Accompanying note: "Morris Thomas refused this Tallahassee bus driver's request to move to the back of the bus. Thomas lived in Midway, but was home on leave from the Navy. He heard about a possible demonstration, did not know it had been called off and was probably the third black in Tallahassee to defy the convention."