In 1956, black people were required to sit in the back of the bus and to give up their seats when asked to white people. On December 1, 1955, a black woman named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man. She was arrested for her actions, and for 381 days all blacks in the city of Montgomery boycotted the city buses. The city buses rolled virtually empty until the Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation in Montgomery was illegal.
