Rosa Parks and the Bus to Freedom

On a December day in 1955, Rosa Parks, a black seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. She was arrested, jailed, and tried for the crime of breaking the laws of segregation.

Rosa's action led to the famous Montgomery bus boycott, a year-long act of protest that focused the attention of the world on the struggle of black Americans to gain their civil rights. It also brought a young pastor named Martin Luther King into the national spotlight. It led to a Supreme Court decision that changed America's history.

For decades, black Americans had put up with the evils of segregation. They had endured the humiliation of "Whites Only" facilities. They had used "Colored" entrances. They had dealt with separate" White" and "Negro" drinking fountains. And they had taken seats in the back of the bus.

What, then, led a 42-year-old woman to say, "No more"?

This story explores how Rosa Parks' life prepared her for the moment she would become a true American hero.