On this day, Dec. 1, in 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat for a white rider in Montgomery, Ala.
Authorities accused and convicted Parks of violating a city ordinance that required black people to ride in the back of the bus. While Parks was sitting in the first row assigned to blacks on the bus, the front of the bus was full and the bus driver ordered her to move farther back so a white woman could sit down. Parks was fined $10 and ordered to pay $4 in court costs.
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Her arrest sparked a local boycott of the bus system. It lasted a year until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Montgomery law was unconstitutional.
On Dec. 21, 1956, Parks was allowed to ride at the front of a bus. Parks and the civil disobedience she inspired helped gather the momentum for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which guaranteed full access to all public facilities.
— Freeman Klopott
