Sixty years ago, on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for violating laws mandating racial segregation on buses. The event sparked one of the most well-known campaigns of the civil rights movement – the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Parks’ activism began in 1943, when she became a member of the local chapter of the NAACP. On the evening of December 1, 1955, Parks was sitting in the colored section of the bus as she rode home from work. As the bus filled up, the driver asked Parks and three other African Americans to give up their seats for white passengers. Tired of giving in, Parks refused and was arrested.

Four days later, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., along with local activists, started a year-long boycott of Montgomery buses. That boycott led to the integration of Montgomery City Buses.

Hosted by the late D’Army Bailey, Moments in Civil Rights History is produced in collaboration with the Equal Justice Initiative and is part of Comcast NBCUniversal’s “His Dream, Our Stories” project.

Visit http://www.HisDreamOurStories.com for more Civil Rights History, first-hand accounts from those who led, participate in or benefited from the Movement, or to share a civil rights story of your own (or that of a loved one).

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