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 We’ve all heard of Rosa Parks, the civil rights activist who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a White passenger in December 1955. That event sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, an important milestone in the civil rights movement. Rosa Parks and her fellow activists helped make public transit accessible to all people. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old African-American seamstress, refused to give up her seat to a white man while riding on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama.. For doing this, Parks was arrested and fined for breaking the laws of segregati 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." Most people know about Rosa Parks and the 1955 Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott. Nine months earlier, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on the same bus system. 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. Rosa Parks wasn't the first black person to refuse to move to the back of the bus—nine months before, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin had done the same thing, and there were many others—but she 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 was split into two sections: the front for white passengers and the back for black. Rosa took a seat in the first row of the section designated for black people. As the bus filled with passengers, the driver approached Rosa’s row and told everyone to move back to make space for white passengers. Three obliged. Rosa refused. The bus driver ordered Parks and three other black people to give up their seats so the white people could sit down. The other three moved to the back of the bus, but Parks slid over to the window. [8] She said she was following the law by sitting in the right section. Later, she said that when she was told to go to the back of the bus, "I 02/03/2025 February 3, 2025. She stood up for her rights by staying seated. In the 1950s, Rosa Parks gave the US Civil Rights Movement a huge boost, and inspired Martin Luther King Jr. In Montgomery, Alabama, when a bus became full, the seats nearer the front were given to white passengers. Montgomery bus driver James Blake ordered Parks and three other African Americans seated nearby to move ("Move y'all, I want those two seats,") to the back of the bus. Three riders complied; Parks did not. In Montgomery, Alabama, when a bus became full, the seats nearer the front were given to white passengers. Montgomery bus driver James Blake ordered Parks and three other African Americans seated nearby to move ("Move y'all, I want those two seats,") to the back of the bus. Three riders complied; Parks did not. Not one step,’” Smith-Ware told reporters. The bus driver then pulled over, alerted the police and she was subsequently arrested, taken to jail to be fingerprinted and fined $12, the equivalent to her entire week’s pay. Two months later, Parks refused, ultimately sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott which lasted for more than 380 days. Nine months before Rosa Parks, there was Claudette Colvin, a 15-year old black girl who was the first person to be arrested for refusing to sit in the back of the bus. The year was 1955. She was one of five women included in a federal court case, Browder v. Rosa Parks' Bus . In 1955, African Americans were still required by a Montgomery, Alabama, city ordinance to sit in the back half of city buses and to yield their seats to white riders if the White people sat at the front of the bus, and Black people had to sit at the back. to the rear of the vehicle before getting back on. Rosa Parks, left, and Martin Luther King Jr., second from Sparking a Social Transformation. It’s one of the most famous moments in modern American civil rights history: On the chilly evening of December 1, 1955, at a bus stop on a busy street in the capital of Alabama, a 42-year-old seamstress boarded a segregated city bus to return home after a long day of work, taking a seat near the middle, just behind the front “white” section. The story of Rosa Parks as a radical activist and believer in self-defense and Black Power; of the Women’s Political Council that started the boycott and of the many women who came before Mrs. Parks; and of the development of King’s profound vision of nonviolent resistance through the aid of his brilliant new mentor, Bayard Rustin who as a gay man was forced to stay in the shadows. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: So, in effect, then, these earlier incidents sort of convinced Parks and Nixon that the time was ripe to make a symbolic stand, refusing on the bus—to sit in the back of the bus
Articles and news, personal stories, interviews with experts.
Photos from events, contest for the best costume, videos from master classes.
![]() | ![]() |
![]() | ![]() |
![]() | ![]() |
![]() | ![]() |
![]() | ![]() |
![]() | ![]() |