Dec. 1, 1955: Call for an End to Segregation Begins on a Bus

Rosa Parks sparked the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a segregated city bus. Her actions led to what is now regarded as the nation’s first large-scale demonstration calling for civil rights. Parks was arrested for her refusal to give up her seat, and the boycott began four days later, spanning from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956.

In 1955, African American citizens living in Montgomery, Alabama, were required by city ordinance to sit in the back half of city buses and yield their seats to white travelers if the front half was full. On December 1, Rosa Parks was sitting in the back half of the bus in the first row of the “colored section.” The driver asked her and three others to yield their seats to white riders who didn’t have a seat in the filled front section. Three of them complied. Parks did not. She sat silently, stoically, firmly.

She was arrested for her failure to adhere to the city’s law and was fined.

It wasn’t the first time such an incident had occurred. Nine months before Rosa Parks’ action, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was riding the bus home from school in Montgomery. When

the bus seats were full, the driver told Colvin and a few of her friends who were seated to move to the back and stand so that the white passengers could sit. Three of the students stood from their seats, but Colvin refused to move.

“He wanted me to give up my seat for a white person,” she later said, “and I would have done it for an elderly person, but this was a young white woman.” She told the driver she had paid her fare and it was her right to remain where she was.

Two policemen came aboard and forcibly removed Colvin, cuffing her and taking her to jail. There, she waited three hours for her mother and pastor to bail her out.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) considered using Colvin’s case to propel an anti-segregation campaign and challenge racist laws; however, they decided not to use her as a figure in a public battle for two reasons: 1) her age; 2) she had become pregnant and an unwed mother, they thought, would attract negative attention that would cloud their cause.

In the aftermath of her arrest and court-ordered probation, the once toprate student was painted as a troublemaker, with her reputation making it impossible to continue with college or find a job.

Colvin knew Rosa Parks at the time Parks was arrested in December 1955. Parks was a seamstress in a local department store, secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP and involved in her church. Colvin was a part of Parks’ youth group at Luther Church.

"Ms. Parks was quiet and very gentle and very soft-spoken,” Colvin said, “but she would always say we should fight for our freedom.”

Because of her work with the NAACP and involvement in worthy causes, Parks was perfect to become the face of resistance to segregation. Her arrest sparked a huge movement. On the night of her arrest, civil rights groups circulated hundreds of flyers were calling for a boycott of the city bus system. On December 5, the date of Parks’ trial in municipal court, more than 40,000 African American bus passengers boycotted the system.

Despite the boycott’s success, city leaders refused to consider protesters’ demands. In response, the African American community organized carpools and specific taxi fares to sustain the boycott.

Black leaders in the community met and formed the Montgomery Improvement Association as an organization to fight segregation. Martin Luther King Jr., a 26-year-old pastor, was elected president of the group. The MIA decided to continue boycotting until the city met its demands: change policies to allow the hiring of black drivers and implement a first-come, firstseated policy.

Many white citizens made known their resistance to the call for equality. Some threatened black citizens or fired them from their jobs while others responded with outright violence. In January 1956, Martin Luther King Jr.’s home was bombed by an unidentified white supremacist terrorist. No one was hurt, but it proved a test to King’s commitment to non-violent resistance. He never wavered.

In time, the demands evolved. A group of five Montgomery women backed by the NAACP sued the city in District Court in a case known as Browder v. Gayle. On June 5, 1956, a Montgomery federal court ruled that laws requiring segregated bus seating violated the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment. One of the four plaintiffs in the case was Claudette Colvin, who testified in court. Following the Montgomery court’s ruling, the city appealed to the US Supreme Court, which upheld the previous ruling: segregation on the buses was unconstitutional and must end.

Montgomery’s buses were integrated on December 21, 1956, the date that marked the official end to the bus boycott. The end of the 381-day movement didn’t mean the fight for civil rights had ended, though. In fact, tensions rose dramatically because of the bus integration in Montgomery. Those who felt threatened by the new provisions put up significant resistance and even resorted to violence.

There were incidents where black passengers were beaten and snipers fired into buses. Churches and homes were bombed. MLK’s house was targeted again, but the bomb was defused. The Montgomery police arrested the bombers, all members of the Klu Klux Klan, which largely ended the bus-related violence.

MLK and other activists continued their work to create a more equal society in which black individuals had the same rights and opportunities as whites. He became an international figure, an intelligent, well-spoken man fighting for freedom in a peaceful, non-violent manner. Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat on December 1, 1955, was the beginning of the larger Civil Rights Movement that came after the bus boycott. Her action was quiet and peaceful, ushering in a campaign for an end to segregation and racism that held the same principles.

In 1999, Parks was awarded the US Congress’ highest honor, the Congressional Gold Medal.

She passed away in October 2005 at the age of 92.