Rosa Parks

Rosa Louise Parks is now known as the "mother of the civil rights movements". She
refused to give up her seat to a white male passenger on a Montgomery, Alabama bus after a long day of work on December 1, 1955. She answered that she did not think that she had to give up her seat when the bus driver asked her why she did not get up and move. According to Parks, she was not physically tired. Instead, she was tired of giving in and being treated unfairly. She was arrested and charged for violating part of the Montgomery City code that dealt with segregation law, though the law stated that no passengers were to be forced to give up a seat or stand when the bus became too crowded. Parks determined that this would be the last time she would suffer such kind of humiliation. "I had not planned to be arrested. "
Local civil rights activists initiated a boycott of the Montgomery bus system after learning about the incident. On December 5, most African American in the city residents walked or arranged rides, very little African- Americans rode the bus that day. Martin Luther King and the other African-American community leaders held another meeting to organize future action. Their organization was called the Montgomery Improvement Association and King was elected as the president. White community fought back with terrorism and harassment. This boycott continued for over a year. On November 13, 1956 the Court declared that Alabama's state and local laws that required segregation on buses were no longer legal. The boycott lasted 381 days and was successful.