Back of the Bus

On December 1, 1955, seamstress and activist Rosa Parks is arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for violating a bus-segregation ordinance. (She refuses to give stand so that a white passenger can have her seat.) The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., age 26, is elected head of the Montgomery Improvement Association and calls for African American bus-riders to use other methods of transportation. The Montgomery Bus Boycott begins on December 5.

In November 1956, the Supreme Court reaffirms a lower court decision and unanimously bans segregation in Montgomery. Federal injunctions are served to city and state officials, as well as to the bus companies. Finally, 381 days after the boycott began, the buses in Montgomery are integrated. This event marks the emergence of Dr. King's leadership in the Civil Rights movement.


Back of the Bus
Rosa Parks, Montgomery Alabama, 1956 United Press Association Photo Library of Congress