Moments in History: The Montgomery Bus Boycott

No one knew, least of all Rosa Parks, that on the evening of December 1, 1955, an entire movement for civil rights would be kick started in the word "No." And yet, Rosa Park's refusal to give up her seat to a white man set in motion a movement that refused to sit in the back of the bus and take its place at the forefront of political activism in postwar America.

On her way home from work as a seamstress Parks boarded a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, tired from a hard and trying day. It was the start of the Christmas season and orders for the holidays were already being filled. It was a Thursday night and the bus had quickly filled with passengers leaving home from work. The White section, which took up the first four rows of the bus, were already filled by the time a White male passenger boarded the vehicle. As was often the custom in the Jim Crow south, whenever the seats in the White section of the bus were filled, then Black passengers sitting in the first few rows of the Black section had to relinquish their seats for any white passengers. So when the White passenger eyed the crowded bus, he went to the bus driver and told him there were no seats left. The driver went toward the back of the bus and told the Black passengers seated in the fifth row to give up their seats. Most of the Black passengers did as they were told, but not Parks, who stared out of the window, seemingly lost in her thoughts. The bus driver confronted Parks and told her to give up her seat. Ms. Parks stared up at the driver and said, "No."