Section 4
Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956)
On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, a Black seamstress named Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. She was arrested for breaking the city's segregation rules. Her quiet act of resistance sparked something huge.
African Americans in Montgomery responded with a boycott: for over a year, they refused to ride the city buses. They walked to work, organized carpools, and stood together, even though many lost their jobs or faced threats. A young pastor named Martin Luther King Jr. rose to lead the boycott, and his message of nonviolent protest became the heart of the movement.
In November 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional. The boycott had worked. It showed that ordinary people, by standing together peacefully, could defeat unjust laws.