<P> The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was formed on December 5, 1955 by black ministers and community leaders in Montgomery, Alabama . Under the leadership of Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Edgar Nixon, the MIA was instrumental in guiding the Montgomery bus boycott, a successful campaign that focused national attention on racial segregation in the South and catapulted King into the national spotlight...</P> <P> Following Rosa Parks' arrest on 1 December 1955 for failing to vacate her seat for a white passenger on a Montgomery city bus, Jo Ann Robinson of the Women's Political Council and E.D. Nixon of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) launched plans for a one - day boycott of Montgomery buses on December 5, 1955, the following Monday . </P>

Who did the montgomery improvement association choose as its leader