Rosa Parks bus

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old African American woman             who worked as a seamstress, boarded this Montgomery City bus to go             home from work. On this bus on that day, Rosa Parks initiated a new             era in the American quest for freedom and equality.             

She sat near the middle of the bus, just behind the 10 seats reserved               for whites. Soon all of the seats in the bus were filled. When a               white man entered the bus, the driver (following the standard practice               of segregation) insisted that all four blacks sitting just behind               the white section give up their seats so that the man could sit               there. Mrs. Parks, who was an active member of the local NAACP,               quietly refused to give up her seat.

Her action was spontaneous and not pre-meditated, although her               previous civil rights involvement and strong sense of justice were               obvious influences. "When I made that decision," she said               later, "I knew that I had the strength of my ancestors with               me."

She               was arrested and convicted of violating the laws of segregation,               known as "Jim Crow laws." Mrs. Parks appealed her conviction               and thus formally challenged the legality of segregation.