65 Years Ago, Parks Refusal To Give Up Her Seat To A White Man Triggered 381-day Bus Boycott By Blacks

65 years Ago, Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat to a white man and her arrest triggered 381-day bus boycott by blacks.

The boycott, from 5 Dec 1955 – 20 Dec 1956, was organized by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. At that time, the blacks comprised two-thirds of Montgomery bus riders.

Instead of using the public bus system, the blacks walked and rode taxis. The move severely damaged the transit company’s finances.

The boycott ended after court ruled that Montgomery’s segregated bus service was unconstitutional.

It’s been 65 years since Rosa Parks‘ refusal to give up her seat on a bus to a white man triggered a 381-day boycott of the bus system by blacks.

According to Parks, she was seating at the front of the black section of a filled up city bus when the driver told her to move so a white male could have her seat.

“The driver wanted us to stand up, the four of us. We didn’t move at the beginning, but he says, ‘Let me have these seats.’ And the other three people moved, but I didn’t,”

Parks refusal to give up her seat led to her arrested and four days later, she was convicted of disorderly conduct and fined $14.

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As the police officer took her away, Parks recalled that she asked :

“Why do you push us around?”

The officer’s response :

“I don’t know, but the law’s the law, and you’re under arrest.”
She added :

“I only knew that, as I was being arrested, that it was the very last time that I would ever ride in humiliation of this kind.”

Her arrest triggered a 381-day boycott of the bus system by blacks to protest Parks’ arrest and as well as the city’s segregation laws.

The boycott, from 5 Dec 1955 – 20 Dec 1956, was organized by a 26-year-old Baptist minister, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. At that time, the blacks comprised two-thirds of Montgomery bus riders.

Instead of using the public transportation system, the blacks walked and rode taxis. The move severely damaged the transit company’s finances.

The boycott ended on November 13, 1956, after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that Montgomery’s segregated bus service was unconstitutional.

Rosa Parks, whose act of civil disobedience in 1955 inspired the modern civil rights movement, died in 2015 at the ripe age of 92 years.

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