Rosa Parks

The Montgomery Bus Boycott propelled Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. to a leadership position in the civil rights movement. The boycott began when Rosa Parks, a forty-three year-old seamstress and the secretary for the NAACP chapter in Montgomery, Alabama, refused to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger, as required by law. Parks was arrested and fined $14 for her offense. Her arrest, however, energized Montgomery's black residents, who had long opposed the law that made them relinquish their seats to white passengers. A successful bus boycott, led by King, that captivated the entire nation ensued—the first noteworthy and successful civil rights protest in the American South. During the next decade, King led the battle to desegregate restaurants, hotels, movie theaters, and other public places previously segregated by law. For her effort, Parks has become known as the...