Segregated Buses
In addition to separate drinking fountains, bathrooms, and schools for African-Americans and whites, there were separate rules regarding seating on city buses. On buses in Montgomery, Alabama (the city in which Rosa Parks lived), the first rows of seats were reserved for whites only; while African-Americans, who paid the same ten cent fare as the whites, were required to find seats in the back. If all the seats were taken but another white passenger boarded the bus, then a row of African-American passengers sitting in the middle of the bus would be required to give up their seats, even if it meant they would have to stand. In addition to the segregated seating on Montgomery city buses, African Americans were often made to pay their bus fare at the front of the bus and then get off the bus and re-enter through the back door. It was not uncommon for bus drivers to drive off before the African-American passenger was able to get back on the bus. Although African-Americans in Montgomery lived with segregation daily, these unfair policies on city buses were especially upsetting. Not only did African-Americans have to endure this treatment twice a day, every day, as they went to and from work, they knew that they, and not the whites, made up the majority of bus passengers. It was time for a change.
Rosa Parks Refuses to give up her seat
After Rosa Parks left work at the Montgomery Fair department store on Thursday, December 1, 1955, she boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus at Court Square to go home. At the time, she was thinking about a workshop she was helping organize and thus she was a bit distracted as she took a seat on the bus, which turned out to be in the row right behind the section reserved for whites. At the next stop, the Empire Theater, a group of whites boarded the bus. There were still enough open seats in the rows reserved for whites for all but one of the new white passengers. The bus driver, James Blake, already known to Rosa Parks for his roughness and rudeness, said, "Let me have those front seats." Rosa Parks and the other three African-Americans seated in her row didn't move. So Blake the bus driver said, "Y'all better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats. The man next to Rosa Parks stood up and Parks let him pass by her. The two women in the bench seat across from her also got up. Rosa Parks remained seated.Although only one white passenger needed a seat, all four African-American passengers were required to stand up because a white person living in the segregated South would not sit in the same row as an African American. Despite the hostile looks from the bus driver and the other passengers, Rosa Parks refused to get up. The driver told Parks, "Well, I'm going to have you arrested." And Parks responded, "You may do that." After patiently waiting two police men came and arrested parks and took her to City Hall were she was placed in a cell for the rest of the night. Rosa parks was later put on trial were she was found guilty and fined as so, news of her trial spread and provoked a 1 day segregated bus boycott which was so successful that it transitioned into a 381 day bus boycott or also known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott which ended when the Supreme Court deemed the segregated buses in Alabama unconstitutional. When Parks was asked if the reason she refused was because she was too tired she stated "No, the only tired I was, was too tired of giving in."