RosaParks
In 1955, segregation was a fact of life even supported by laws. In Montgomery,
Alabama in 1955 riding the bus was no
exception. For an African American person,
a trip on a public bus could be a daunting
experience. African American passengers
were required to board the bus at the front
door, pay the fare, then deboard the bus and
enter it through the rear door. Often, after
paying a fare and getting off the bus, the driver
would close the door and leave the African
American passenger on the curb, fareless and
without a ride.
Segregation laws at the time reserved the front
seats of buses for white passengers and
required African Americans to ride at the back
of the bus. If there were not enough seats in
the front for all the white passengers, African
American passengers were required to get up
and move to the back of the bus.
A refusal to comply with this law would result
in being arrested and fined. Outside the law,
such a defiant act could result in more serious
retribution.
On December 1, 1955, Mrs. Rosa Parks
boarded the Cleveland Avenue Bus. She took
a seat in the fifth row, the first row of the
“colored section.” The bus driver was the
same one who had put her off a bus twelve
years earlier for refusing to get off the bus and
reboard through the back door.
On that December day, the bus driver noted
that the front of the bus was filled with white
passengers, leaving one white man standing,
so he moved the colored section sign behind
Mrs. Parks. He then demanded the African
American passengers, including Mrs. Parks,
give up their seats so the man could sit. The
others moved, but Mrs. Parks refused.
She was arrested and convicted of violating
the laws of segregation. Within days her
arrest sparked a 380-day boycott, in which
the African American population of
Montgomery refused to ride the buses and
either walked or took one of the African
American-owned cabs stopping at every bus
stop for ten cents a passenger; the standard
bus fare.
This simple act of defiance and the resulting
bus boycott, as well as nation-wide
demonstrations in support of Mrs. Parks, led
to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that
desegregated Montgomery’s public
transportation system.