NEGROES DENIED PERMIT FOR BUS LINE

Leaders of the racial boycott against Montgomery City Lines buses asked in vain yesterday for permission to operate an all-Negro bus line in Montgomery.

The City Commission turned them down with the observation that the boycotted Montgomery City Lines Inc. is offering "excellent bus service for the entire city" and the "45 or 50 buses are now standing empty."

Negroes for 19 weeks have refused to ride the segregated City Lines buses and the company ahs discontinued some routes and shortened others. Ninety leaders of the bus protest are under indictment for violating the state's anti-boycott law.

Members of a Negro delegation, led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., asked the city commission for authority to form a new bus company to "provide adequate transportation for our people." They said the company would be "owned and operated by Montgomery Negroes."

Mayor W. A. Gayle, speaking for the commission, said bus revenue wouldn't support two lines. He suggested instead the Negroes ask Montgomery City Lines to operate buses exclusively for them.

King, only one of thee indicted Negroes brought to trial thus far, told the commission. "We are only asking satisfactory transportation. We don't want to put the other company out of business - that has never been our goal. We are trying to make for wholesome relations and the elimination of tension among the races in Montgomery."

The Negro Baptist minister was convicted of boycotting and fined $500. He has appealed the fine and Negro attorneys said they would take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.

Most of the original issues in the bus boycott - including better seating arrangements and the hiring of Negro drivers - were discussed again yesterday at the 90 minutes conference.

Gayle said the employment of drivers "is up to the bus company. It's their money and they have the right to hire whom they please."

After the meeting, King declined to say whether the Negroes would confer with bus line officials. He said that decision would have to be made by the Montgomery Improvement Assn. Executive board and "the Negroes of Montgomery."

The improvement association, of which King is president, was formed to support the boycott and improve the general status of the Negro population.

Whether the protest would end if the bus company agreed to hire some Negro drivers likewise would be a matter to be determined at a Negro mass meeting, King added.

Other members of the Negro delegation were the Rev. H. H. Hubbard, the Rev. W. J. Powell, E. D. Nixon, J E. Pierce, Attorneys Fred D. Gray and Charles Langford, and the widow of a Negro physician, Dr. A. W. West.