On this day, December the 1st, in the year of 1955, Rosa Parks, a noted figure and activist in America’s Civil Rights, refused to give up her seat on a bus in the “whites only” section of it (Britannica) (On This Day).

Delving more into the situation, Parks was riding home from her job in Montgomery, Alabama, on a city owned bus. At the time, segregation laws were in place in Montgomery, which included separate “white” and “colored” sections of buses (NPS). Parks was sitting in the full white section when a man asked her to move so he didn’t have to sit in the colored section.

Parks rejected that notion.

Parks would be arrested for her defiance, which would spark the Montgomery Bus Boycott, where supporters of the Civil Rights Movement didn’t ride the bus. This was until next December (1956), around when the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was unconstitutional (Academy of Achievement) (History).

Today, the name Rosa Parks is synonymous with Civil Rights in America and around the world.

To read more daily facts and tidbits, see the Barron Perspectives “On this Day Archives” webpage.