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Rosa Parks (center, in dark coat and hat) rides a bus at the end of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Montgomery, Alabama, Dec. 26, 1956. Don Cravens/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images. Most of us know Rosa Parks as the African American woman who quietly, but firmly, refused to give up her bus seat to a white person Dec. 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama. That small act of And drivers often forced black riders, once they had paid their fare, to get off the bus and re-enter through the back door—sometimes driving away without them, as had happened to Rosa Parks. Those who didn’t comply with these rules could be verbally abused, slapped, knocked on the floor, pushed out the door, beaten, or even killed. Thursday marks the 61st anniversary of Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus to a white man — an action that got her arrested, sparked the Montgomery bus boycott Why Didn't Rosa Parks Stand Up? At the time, bus drivers were allowed to carry guns in order to enforce the segregation laws. By refusing to give up her seat, Rosa Parks might have been grabbed or beaten. Instead, on this particular day, Blake the bus driver just stood outside the bus and waited for the police to arrive. 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 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 Today marks the anniversary of Rosa Parks’ decision to sit down for her rights on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus, putting the effort to end segregation on a fast track. Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955, after she refused to give up her seat on a crowded bus to a white passenger. In March of 1955, Claudette Colvin, aged 15, was taking the bus home from high school when the driver asked her to give up her seat for a White passenger. Colvin refused and was arrested. Like Rosa Parks, Claudette Colvin’s refusal to move to the back of the bus was a political statement. 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. “Mrs. Rosa Parks, seamstress, being fingerprinted yesterday in Montgomery, Ala. Her arrest last December for refusing to move to the rear of the bus led to the Negro boycott of segregated city bus lines, for which she and 114 other persons have been indicted,” reads a 1956 caption from the front page of The Times. 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. TIL Rosa Parks didn't actually refuse to sit in the back of the bus. She was sitting in the back of the bus but refused to give up her seat in the "colored section" to a white passenger, after the whites-only section was filled. In 1955, Claudette Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white woman in Alabama — nine months before Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks became a civil rights icon when she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955. But just nine months earlier, a teenager named Claudette Rosa Parks (born February 4, 1913, Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S.—died October 24, 2005, Detroit, Michigan) was an American civil rights activist whose refusal to relinquish her seat on a public bus precipitated the 1955–56 Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama, which became the spark that ignited the civil rights movement in the United States. Just like you. It was something I desired to show that everyone is equal. Just because they were older than me didn't give them the right to exclude me from the back of the bus. The back of the bus in grade school represents maturity, a privilege earned by age. That is why it is cool to sit in the back. The man went to the front of the bus and alerted the bus driver who then looked at Smith-Ware in the rearview mirror and requested she stand up to let the white man sit. “I am already furious cause I didn’t get paid. I think I said a profanity word. I said, ‘I am not moving. Not one step,’” Smith-Ware told reporters. 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. A Introduction. On December 1, 1955, a tired Rosa Parks left work as a department store tailor’s assistant and planned to ride home on a city bus. Why Didn't Rosa Parks Stand Up? At the time, bus drivers were allowed to carry guns in order to enforce the segregation laws. By refusing to give up her seat, Rosa Parks might have been grabbed or beaten. Instead, on this particular day, Blake the bus driver just stood outside the bus and waited for the police to arrive. If there were any white passengers on the bus, the black passengers had to pay for their ticket, get off, hope that the bus didn't leave, get back on through the back door, and then find a seat. The divider between the white and black sections was a sign that could be moved depending on the number of seats needed.
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