After working all day, Rosa Parks
boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus around 6 p.m. on Thursday, December 1, 1955,
in downtown Montgomery. She paid her fare and sat in an empty seat in the first
row of back seats reserved for blacks in the "colored" section. As the bus traveled along its regular
route, all of the white-only seats in the bus filled up. The bus reached the
third stop in front of the Empire Theater, and several white passengers
boarded. At this point the bus driver moved the "colored" section
sign behind Parks and demanded that four black people give up their seats in
the middle section so that the white passengers could sit. Parks moved, but
toward the window seat; she did not get up to move to the redesignated colored
section which prompted the bus driver to call the police who arrested Parks.
Plans for the Montgomery Bus
Boycott on Monday the 5th of December to coincide with the trial of Rosa Parks were
announced at black churches in the area, and a front-page article in The
Montgomery Advertiser helped spread the word. At a church rally that
night, those attending agreed unanimously to continue the boycott until they
were treated with the level of courtesy they expected, until black drivers were
hired, and until seating in the middle of the bus was handled on a first-come
basis.
Parks was tried on charges of disorderly conduct and
violating a local ordinance during a trial that lasted just 30 minutes. She was
found guilty and fined $10, plus $4 in court costs.
Outside it rained that day, but
the black community persevered in their boycott. Some rode in carpools, while
others travelled in black-operated cabs that charged the same fare as the bus,
10 cents. Most of the remainder of the 40,000 black commuters walked, some as
far as 20 miles (30 km).
In the end, black residents of
Montgomery continued the boycott for 381 days, at considerable personal
sacrifice. Dozens of public buses stood idle for months, severely damaging the
bus transit company's finances, until the city repealed its law requiring
segregation on public buses following the US Supreme Court ruling that it was
unconstitutional.
Photo Legacy: Making your memories last forever www.photolegacy.com
Research courtesy of Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks
Images courtesy of the U.S.
National Archives under the Commons Agreement on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives/5553386754/
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