In 1955, segregation was a fact of life - Rosaeven supported by laws. In Montgomery, Alabama in 1955 riding the bus was no exception. For an African American person, a trip on a public bus could be a daunting experience. African American passengers Parks ParksOn that December day, the bus driver noted were required to board the bus at the front door, pay the fare, then deboard the bus and that the front of the bus was filled with white enter it through the rear door. Often, after passengers, leaving one white man standing, paying a fare and getting off the bus, the driver so he moved the colored section sign behind would close the door and leave the African Mrs. Parks. He then demanded the African American passenger on the curb, fareless and American passengers, including Mrs. Parks, without a ride. give up their seats so the man could sit. The others moved, but Mrs. Parks refused. Segregation laws at the time reserved the front seats of buses for white passengers and She was arrested and convicted of violating required African Americans to ride at the back the laws of segregation. Within days her of the bus. If there were not enough seats in arrest sparked a 380-day boycott, in which the front for all the white passengers, African the African American population of American passengers were required to get up Montgomery refused to ride the buses and and move to the back of the bus. either walked or took one of the African American-owned cabs stopping at every bus A refusal to comply with this law would result stop for ten cents a passenger; the standard in being arrested and fined. Outside the law, bus fare. such a defiant act could result in more serious retribution. This simple act of defiance and the resulting bus boycott, as well as nation-wide On December 1, 1955, Mrs. Rosa Parks demonstrations in support of Mrs. Parks, led boarded the Cleveland Avenue Bus. She took to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that a seat in the fifth row, the first row of the desegregated Montgomery’s public “colored section.” The bus driver was the transportation system. same one who had put her off a bus twelve years earlier for refusing to get off the bus and reboard through the back door.