For 382 days, almost the entire African American population of Montgomery, Alabama, including leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, refused to ride on segregated buses. The protests Rosa Parks is best known for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, which sparked a yearlong boycott that was a turning point in the civil rights For 382 days, almost the entire African American population of Montgomery, Alabama, including leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, refused to ride on segregated buses. Rosa Parks is famous for refusing to give up her seat to a white man while riding the bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. Her actions spurred the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which ultimately led to the desegregation of buses within the city. In Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks is jailed for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man, a violation of the city’s racial segregation laws. The Bus Incident. On December 1, 1955, Rosa was on her way home from work. She boarded a city bus in Montgomery and took a seat in the “colored” section, as the law required. At the time, buses were segregated, with the front reserved for white passengers and the back for black riders. Rosa Parks, an African American, was arrested that day for violating a city law requiring racial segregation of public buses. On the city buses of Montgomery, Alabama, the front 10 seats were permanently reserved for white passengers. On a cold December evening in 1955, Rosa Parks quietly incited a revolution — by just sitting down. She was tired after spending the day at work as a department store seamstress. She stepped onto the bus for the ride home and sat in the fifth row — the first row of the " Colored Section." On December 1st, 1955, the famous bus incident took place. Parks had just completed her seamstress work and had boarded the bus. She sat down in the colored section. Soon a white man entered the bus. Since the bus was full, the driver asked Rosa along with few other African-Americans to give up their seats, so that the white man could sit down. African-Americans had wilfully violated the segregation of public transport before Rosa Parks, even in her hometown of Montgomery, Alabama, where 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was arrested nine months earlier for the same crime of refusing to give up her bus seat. Y ou probably think you know the story of Rosa Parks, the seamstress who refused to move to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Ala., 60 years ago—on Dec. 1, 1955—and thus galvanized the bus Rosa Parks Act, 2006 Act approved in the Legislature of the U.S. state of Alabama to allow those considered law-breakers at the time of the Montgomery bus boycott to clear their arrest records of the charge of civil disobedience, including Rosa Parks posthumously. “During the Montgomery bus boycott, we came together and remained unified for 381 days. It has never been done again. The Montgomery boycott became the model for human rights throughout the world.” When Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955, for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man, she was mentally prepared for the moment. Activist Rosa Parks sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott that partially ended racial segregation. Parks later said of the incident: Time magazine named Parks on its 1999 list of “The 20 This an undated photo shows Rosa Parks riding on the Montgomery Area Transit System bus. Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus on Dec. 1, 1955, and ignited the boycott that led to a federal court ruling against segregation in public transportation. Rosa Parks: Well, the first meeting was not at the Baptist Church. The first meeting we had was at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Dr. Martin Luther King's church where he was pastoring. That was — on Friday evening. INTERVIEWER: I'M TALKING ABOUT THE BIG MEETING AT THE — Rosa Parks: Oh, the big meeting at the Holt Street Baptist Church. Guiding Question: How can activists and activism evolve over time? Big Idea: Lifelong Activism Students will analyze Rosa Parks' evolving activism during the Black Freedom Movement using primary source sets created from the Library of Congress exhibit "Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words.” O n March 2, 1955, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was sitting on a totally full bus in Montgomery, Ala., when the driver asked her and three black schoolmates give up the whole row so that a white At the front of a bus, previously reserved for white riders, is Rosa Parks, face turned to the window to her left, seemingly lost in thought as she rides through Montgomery, Ala. In the seat behind her is a young white man looking to his right, his face hard, almost expressionless. Rosa Parks occupies an iconic status in the civil rights movement after she refused to vacate a seat on a bus in favor of a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1955, Parks rejected a bus driver's order to leave a row of four seats in the "colored" section once the white section had filled up and move to the back of the bus.
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