On this date in 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the “whites only” section of a public bus in Montgomery, AL. She was arrested and agreed to let the NAACP provide legal counsel.
Rosa Parks' case was filed in the United States District Court, which ruled in her favor, declaring segregated seating on buses unconstitutional, later upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
This episode set the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a turning point in the 20th-century Black struggle for American Civil Rights.