November 13, 1956 - Rosa Parks

U.S. Supreme Court declares segregation on buses unconstitutional. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a bus run by the Montgomery Bus Company in Alabama. Asked later how she had the nerve to take such a stand, she replied, “The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” A few days later, a court found her guilty of disobeying the segregation laws. This so outraged blacks that on December 5th, the Montgomery Improvement Association urged blacks to boycott the bus system. Authorities expected the protest to last a few days, but it ran for more than a year. Meanwhile, Parks’s case wound its way through the court system until on November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation on public buses was unconstitutional in nine states. Even then, despite their tired feet, blacks maintained their resolve and refused to end the boycott until December 21st, when the Supreme Court’s paperwork on the case was complete. Thus, a single act of defiance by one woman led to a legal victory that in turn was a catalyst for the civil rights movement and the hard fought gains that would follow.

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