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. Rosa Parks (1913—2005) helped initiate the civil rights movement in the United States when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955. Her actions But on December 1, 1955, African American seamstress Rosa Parks was commuting home on Montgomery’s Cleveland Avenue bus from her job at a local department store. She was seated in the front On this day in 1955, in Montgomery, Ala., Rosa Parks, an African-American, rejected bus driver James Blake’s order to relinquish her seat in the “colored section” to a white passenger, after The 1 December 1955 refusal of Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (1913 –) to surrender her seat to a white man on a municipal bus would have far-reaching implications, not only for her fellow citizens of Montgomery, Alabama, but for all Americans as well. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for disorderly conduct for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. Civil Rights leader E. D. Nixon bailed her out of jail, joined by white friends Clifford Durr, an attorney, and his wife, Virginia. 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. Rosa Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was a seamstress by profession; she was also the secretary for the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. Twelve years before her history-making arrest, Parks was stopped from boarding a city bus by driver James F. Blake, who ordered her to board at the rear door and then drove off without her. Parks December 1, 1955: Rosa Parks — later known as the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement” — refused to give up her seat on a city bus, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott. On 1 December 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. This single act of nonviolent resistance sparked the Montgomery bus boycott, an eleven-month struggle to desegregate the city’s buses. Rosa Parks was married, employed, enjoyed a reputation for good character, and, most notably to Nixon, was quiet, mature, and dignified. When they were arrested, two of the women arrested earlier in 1955 and now suing the city were only 15 years old. Dr. King spoke to nearly 5,000 people at the Holt Street Baptist Church in Montgomery on December 5, 1955, just four days after Mrs. Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to relinquish her seat on a Montgomery city bus. That arrest led to the first major civil rights campaign in the Deep South in half a century. Figure 1: (left) Rosa Parks’ mug shot from Montgomery City Jail, Montgomery, 1955.(right) Recreation of Ms. Parks sitting on a Montgomery bus, staged and taken on December 21, 1956, the day after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregated buses illegal. Before her arrest in 1955, Rosa Parks. The Supreme Court's declarative ruling ended the 381-day boycott by requiring an immediate end to the city's segregated bus When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus for white passengers in 1955, she was arrested for violating the city’s racial segregation ordinances. Her action sparked the Montgomery bus boycott , led by the Montgomery Improvement Association and Martin Luther King, Jr. , that eventually succeeded in achieving On 1 December 1955 local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) leader Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Montgomery’s boycott was not entirely spontaneous, and Rosa Parks and other activists had prepared to challenge segregation long in advance. On December 1, 1955, a tired Rosa L. Parks left the department store where she worked as a tailor’s assistant and boarded a crowded city bus for the ride home. Introduction. The Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-1956 was a defining moment in the American Civil Rights Movement. Triggered by the arrest of Rosa Parks for refusing to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger, the 13-month protest campaign reshaped the struggle for racial equality and introduced the world to a young minister named Martin Luther King Jr. Rosa Parks became an iconic figure in the fight against racial discrimination when she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955. This act of defiance was more than just a refusal to move; it was a statement against the unjust laws of segregation that plagued the American South. Her arrest was the catalyst for the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a pivotal Related primary source: Rosa Parks. [Reflections on her arrest for refusing to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger, December 1, 1955], ca. 1956. Autograph manuscript. Rosa Parks Papers. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
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