December 1st

On this day – 1^st December 1955 – Rosa Parks got arrested for refusing to give up her seat

Rosa Parks got arrested because she refused to give up her bus seat in the coloured section of the bus, to a white man. There were separate sections in the busses for white and coloured, but if the white-only seats were taken, were the coloured bus riders required to give up their seat. This is what Parks refused to do in 1955. She was arrested for civil disobedience and for breaking the segregation laws in Montgomery. She hadn’t been the first to defy the segregation laws in the US, but she became one of the most important symbols for the civil rights movement in the US. December 1^st is celebrated as Rosa Parks day in the US.

"When that white driver stepped back toward us, when he waved his hand and ordered us up and out of our seats, I felt a determination to cover my body like a quilt on a winter night." -Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks wrote an autobigraphy about the events in 1999. The book is called "My Story".