On This Day: December 1st - Rosa Parks Refused to Give Up Her Seat

On this date in the year 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her actions sparked a struggle to desegregate public transportation in the South. The desegregation within public transportation was a civil right's obstacle that helped lead to the larger Civil Rights movement in America. Much of America was segregated at the time of Rosa Parks. In Montgomery, Alabama, Jim Crow Laws regulated interstate commerce. On city buses, the first four rows of seats were reserved for white people. Blacks usually sat in the rear of the bus. Ironically, most of the people who rode the city buses were black. Blacks had to adjust to the white sections, sometimes forced to leave the bus if there was no more room for white passengers.

It was apparent that something had to be done in order to stop the unfair treatment of blacks on city buses. On December 1st, 1955, Rosa Parks got on a Montgomery city bus and would change history. She went to a seat in the back reserved for blacks and sat down. She sat behind the seats that were reserved for whites. Soon, the seats reserved for whites became full. As the bus arrived at a stop in front of the Empire Theater, the bus driver asked Rosa Parks and three other black passengers to move in order to allow whites to sit in their seats. Three of them moved but Rosa Parks politely refused to move. The bus driver called the police who arrived and arrested her. Rosa Parks is a significant person in the history of the Civil Rights movement. Her polite form of activism caught the attention of the nation and helped progress action towards desegregation.