1. Rosa Parks & The Montgomery
Bus Boycott
Miss Page
Topics in U.S. History

2. About Rosa Parks
• Born Feb. 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama
• Died Oct. 24, 2005 in Detroit, Michigan.
• Before Bus boycott she protested “colored
only” drinking fountains and segregated
elevators
• Member of NAACP
– Secretary of Montgomery Chapter

3. Segregated Bussing:
December 1, 1955, was the day on which Rosa Parks took her famous bus ride. Below you
will read some of the rules bus riders followed at that time:
•White people boarded the bus through the front door. They dropped their coins into the fare
box next to the driver. Then they sat in one of the long seats at the front of the bus or in one
of the first three rows of seats.
•Black people boarded the bus through the front door. They dropped their coins into the fare
box. Then they had to get off the bus and get back on through the door in the back of the
bus. They took a seat in one of the last five rows or they stood in a “standing only” area at
the back of the bus.
•If a white person got on the bus and there were no more seats in the white section, a black
person who was sitting in the front rows of seats set aside for black people had to give up his
or her seat.

4. Rosa gets Arrested
• On December 1,1955, Rosa was coming
home from her job at a department store.
• She got on a crowded bus and sat down in
the first row of “colored seats”
• At the next stop, more white people got on
the bus and one man was not able to find a
seat in “white section”.
• The bus driver told four African Americans
in Rosa’s row to get up and move to the
back.
• They all moved except Rosa.
• The bus driver called the police and Rosa
was arrested.

5. Rosa Parks has
been called the
“Pioneer of the
Civil Rights
Movement”
and “Mother of
the Civil Rights
Movement”

6. Montgomery Bus Boycott
• Rosa Park’s decision not to give up her
seat on the bus and her arrest caused all
black people in Montgomery to refuse to
ride the city busses.
• Montgomery Improvement Association
formed, and MLK Jr. was elected the
leader.
• The bus boycott lasted for 381 days. Blacks
organized carpools and walked long
distances to protest buses.
• The case was taken all the way to the
Supreme Court of The United States.

7. A hard-won battle:
· In 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was
unconstitutional.
· Therefore, the Montgomery bus company agreed to integrate their buses and
hire black bus drivers.
·On December 21, 1956 MLK boarded a Montgomery Bus and sat in the front!

8. Rosa Parks activism after the boycott:
• Parks later served on staff for United States Representative,
John Conyers of Michigan from 1965 to 1988 when she retired.
• After the death of her husband in 1977, Mrs. Parks founded the
Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development.
• In 1979, Parks won the Spingarn Medal for her civil rights
work.
• In 1999, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of
Honor, the highest honor a civilian can receive in the
United States.

9. Assignment:
• Today a historic marker can be found at the
bus stop where Rosa Parks began her
famous ride. It begins, “At the bus stop on
this sit on December 1, 1955…”
• Complete the commemoration. Use no
more than 50 words to explain the impact
and legacy of Rosa stepping on the bus
from that stop!