61 years ago today, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus
61 years ago today, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus
Zlati Meyer , Detroit Free Press 12:25 p.m. EST December 1, 2016
Editor's note: This story first ran on Dec. 1, 2013.
Future Detroiter Rosa Parks was arrested Dec. 1, 1955, after refusing to move to the back of a city bus in Montgomery, Ala.
Her action - not giving up her seat for white riders - galvanized the civil rights movement in the U.S. It prompted a huge bus boycott in Montgomery that garnered national attention.
"Upon arrival the bus driver said he had a colored female sitting in the white section of the bus, and would not move back," the responding police officers said in their report.
The 42-year-old Parks was taken to jail, charged with violating the city's segregation law. She was tried on Dec. 5 and convicted of disorderly conduct. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was launched that day, lasting more than a year until the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the city to desegregate its buses...
