Rosa and the Bus

Today is Rosa Parks Day. It was on this date in 1955 that the 42-year old Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. Three other "colored" people complied with the bus driver's request. But Rosa, who was an active member of the NAACP, made her stand. Four days later, black leaders, including the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr, organized the Montgomery (Alabama) bus boycott. The boycott lasted 381 days. On 20 December 1956,  the Supreme Court ruled that any law requiring racially segregated seating on buses violated the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution. As a result, the buses were fully integrated and the boycott ended the next day.

This was the spark that jump started the Civil Rights Movement.

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