A look back: Montgomery Bus Boycott

Rosa Parks' quiet, but determined refusal to give up her seat on a city bus in Montgomery, Ala. to a white man on Dec. 1, 1955 sparked the beginning of The Montgomery Bus Boycott four days later on Dec. 5, in which all African Americans refused to travel on city buses. The boycott began after Parks was arrested and fined $10, on the very day of her court hearing, and ended a little more than a year later on Dec. 20, 1956. The Montgomery Bus Boycott is widely credited with helping launch the modern civil rights movement.

This undated photo shows Parks riding on a Montgomery Area Transit System bus.

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks, left, who was fined $10 and court costs for violating Montgomery's segregation ordinance for city buses, makes bond for appeal to Circuit Court, Dec. 5, 1955. Signing the bond were E.D. Nixon, center, former state president of the NAACP, and attorney Fred Gray. Gray hinted that the ordinance requiring segregation would be attacked as unconstitutional.

Historic, monumental moments can come from small acts. Parks, a seamstress, was simply returning home from a day of work at a department store when the bus driver asked her and three other passengers to move from the front row of the "colored section." Parks was the only one to refuse, which led to her arrest and the fine.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

A bus driver is all alone as his empty bus moves through downtown Montgomery, during the boycott, April 26, 1956.

Seventy five percent of city's bus passengers were black before the boycott. Ninety nine percent of the black ridership boycotted the system.

Five women residents of Montgomery along with the NAACP sued the city in U.S. District Court to bring an end to the bus segregation laws.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The Rev. Ralph Abernathy, pastor of the Negro First Baptist Church and Director of the Alabama Negro Baptist Center, hugs a member of his church in front of a jail in Montgomery, Ala. on Feb. 22, 1956 when he was brought in for participating in the bus boycott.

Abernathy was among a large group of Montgomery blacks indicted by a grand jury on boycott charges.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

An orderly crowd of African Americans gathers outside the Montgomery County jail, Feb. 22, 1956 in Alabama, as police begin bringing in religious and political leaders indicted in the bus boycott.

Initially, boycott leaders didn't try to end segregation. They only demanded that black passengers should be treated with courtesy, more black drivers be hired and seats be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis with blacks entering from a back entrance.

Eventually, five women residents of Montgomery along with the NAACP sued the city in U.S. District Court to bring an end to the bus segregation laws.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Rosa Parks, is fingerprinted by police Lt. D.H. Lackey in Montgomery during the boycott, Feb. 22, 1956.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., right, accompanied by Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, center, is booked by city policeman Lt. D.H. Lackey in Montgomery, Ala. on Feb. 23, 1956.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Rosa Parks arrives at circuit court to be arraigned, Feb. 24, 1956 in Montgomery because of the boycott.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

This is part of the crowd outside the Montgomery, Ala., county courthouse after black leaders were arraigned on 11 indictments returned on Feb. 21 by the grand jury in the bus boycott, Feb. 24, 1956.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Cheers greeted black preachers, many of them indicted by the grand jury in the bus boycott, as they arrived for a mass prayer meeting in Montgomery, Ala. Feb. 24, 1956. One of the boycott leaders, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, left, foreground, facing camera, led the meeting.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Rosa Parks and E.D. Nixon, left, former president of the Alabama NAACP, arrive at court in Montgomery March 19, 1956 for trial.

Parks was given the the Congressional Gold Medal by the U.S. Congress in 1999 for her pivotal role in the history of the civil rights movement.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Fred Gray, left, and Arthur D. Shores, center, defense attorneys in the bus boycott trial, talk with Rep. Charles Diggs, D-Mich., right, on the steps of the Montgomery County Courthouse on the first day of the trial, March 19, 1956. Diggs said he was an"observer."

Ninety three African-Americans went on trial on charges of violating the state's anti-boycott law. The grand jury returned 11 indictments against the group on Feb. 21.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is welcomed with a kiss by his wife Coretta after leaving court in Montgomery, Ala., March 22, 1956.

King was found guilty of conspiracy to boycott city buses in a campaign to desegregate the bus system, but a judge suspended his $500 fine pending appeal.

King, a little-known minister in Montgomery, gained a national profile as a leader of the civil rights movement as a result of the boycott. His nonviolent approach to change was fundamental to the boycott strategy.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. is shown speaking to an overflow crowd at a mass meeting at the Holt Street Baptist Church. King, leader of the mass bus boycott, was found guilty March 22, 1956 of conspiracy in the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

King said the boycott of city buses will continue "no matter how many times they convict me."

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Dr. Ralph Abernathy, right, close associate to Dr. Martin Luther King, both leaders of the civil rights march on the Alabama state capitol in Montgomery on March 25, 1956, reads papers served on the marchers by sheriff deputies seeking to halt an African American boycott of buses in Selma Ala., where the march started five days before.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

At left, front seat, is the Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy and behind him is the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., among the first to ride a Montgomery bus on Dec. 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court's integration order went into effect. At right, second row, is a white minister, the Rev. Glenn Smiley of New York, who said he was in Montgomery as an observer. The woman is unidentified.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that the bus segregation laws violated the 14th Amendment and ordered the city to integrate the bus system. No longer was it necessary for blacks to sit at the back of the bus or give up their seat to a white passenger.

Integration was not to follow a smooth road, however, and there was violence in the years ahead in the struggle for greater equality.