On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, who was a member of the NAACP, refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus. She was arrested and fined. Although people like Claudette Colvin did the same months before, this was the moment that would spark the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Beginning on Dec. 5, 1955, the boycott, which was led by Martin Luther King Jr., lasted 381 days.
It was considered the first large-scale demonstration for civil rights in the United States. In addition to using private cars, some people used non-motorized means to get around, such as cycling, walking, or even riding mules or driving horse-drawn buggies. Others hitchhiked. Ultimately, the United States Supreme Court ordered the city of Montgomery to integrate the transit system.
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