December 1, 1955.
Rosa Parks gets on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She sits down in the front row of seats, which are reserved for white people only. The driver tells her to move to the back of the bus, but she refuses and remains seated. The driver calls the police and has her arrested for violating segregation laws.
This act of defiance sparks a 381-day boycott of Montgomery’s buses by African-Americans. The boycott ends on December 20, 1956 when the United States Supreme Court rules that Montgomery’s bus segregation laws are unconstitutional.
Parks continues to fight for civil rights until her death in 2005 at age 92.
