Some NIU students won’t sit at the back of the bus, or any other part, during a Black Student Union bus boycott for Black History Month.

The BSU’s second annual Black Down Memory Lane bus boycott will be going on all day Friday.

“We are having this boycott to pay tribute to our ancestors that boycotted the Montgomery, Alabama bus system back in 1955 for 381 days,” said BSU president DuJuan Smith.

The BSU hopes all students of color realize the significance of what their ancestors did years ago.

The bus boycott was a successful effort by more than 40,000 blacks in Montgomery against segregation on buses. This reflected a new attitude of protest by Southern blacks and is considered the beginning of the Modern Civil Rights Movement. It also led to similar protests by blacks in other Southern cities. This is not being done to slight the Huskie Bus Line in any way, shape or form, said Elizabeth Jackson, executive manager for the BSU.

The BSU hopes to draw more students to participate in the boycott than last year.

“After last year’s event, many students had become more interested in the message BSU sent,” Jackson said. “Students began giving us more feedback, having a greater interest in the boycott and realized its importance to them. We expect to double the crowd we had last year.”

The boycott is a chance for students to participate in something worth while.

“Of course your greatest learning experience in college is outside of the classroom,” said junior public administration major, Dennis Leaks Jr. “As a young adult there is much more to learn about yourself and it is necessary that you learn from your ancestors before you who helped shape the way you think and the person you are becoming,”