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  • Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.
    Thursday Dec 1, 1955
    Martin Luther King

    Rosa Parks

    Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.
    Thursday Dec 1, 1955

    Nine months later on December 1, 1955, a similar incident occurred when Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus.




  • Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.
    Thursday Dec 1, 1955
    Rosa Parks

    Parks was Arrested

    Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.
    Thursday Dec 1, 1955

    When Parks refused to give up her seat, a police officer arrested her. As the officer took her away, she recalled that she asked, "Why do you push us around?" She remembered him saying, "I don't know, but the law's the law, and you're under arrest." She later said, "I only knew that, as I was being arrested, that it was the very last time that I would ever ride in humiliation of this kind. ... ". Parks was charged with a violation of Chapter 6, Section 11 segregation law of the Montgomery City code, although technically she had not taken a white-only seat; she had been in a colored section. Edgar Nixon, president of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP and leader of the Pullman Porters Union, and her friend Clifford Durr bailed Parks out of jail that evening.




  • Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.
    Thursday Dec 1, 1955
    06:00:00 PM
    Rosa Parks

    The 2nd bus Incident

    Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.
    Thursday Dec 1, 1955
    06:00:00 PM

    around 6 p.m., Thursday, December 1, 1955, in downtown Montgomery. She paid her fare and sat in an empty seat in the first row of back seats reserved for blacks in the "colored" section. Near the middle of the bus, her row was directly behind the ten seats reserved for white passengers. Initially, she did not notice that the bus driver was the same man, James F. Blake, who had left her in the rain in 1943. As the bus traveled along its regular route, all of the white-only seats in the bus filled up. The bus reached the third stop in front of the Empire Theater, and several white passengers boarded. Blake noted that two or three white passengers were standing, as the front of the bus had filled to capacity. He moved the "colored" section sign behind Parks and demanded that four black people give up their seats in the middle section so that the white passengers could sit. Parks moved, but toward the window seat; she did not get up to move to the redesignated colored section. Parks later said about being asked to move to the rear of the bus, "I thought of Emmett Till and I just couldn't go back." Blake said, "Why don't you stand up?" Parks responded, "I don't think I should have to stand up." Blake called the police to arrest Parks.




  • Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.
    Sunday Dec 4, 1955
    Rosa Parks

    The Montgomery Bus boycott

    Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.
    Sunday Dec 4, 1955

    On Sunday, December 4, 1955, plans for the Montgomery bus boycott were announced at black churches in the area, and a front-page article in the Montgomery Advertiser helped spread the word. At a church rally that night, those attending agreed unanimously to continue the boycott until they were treated with the level of courtesy they expected, until black drivers were hired, and until seating in the middle of the bus was handled on a first-come basis.




  • Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.
    Monday Dec 5, 1955
    Rosa Parks

    Parks was tried on charges of disorderly conduct and violating a local ordinance

    Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.
    Monday Dec 5, 1955

    The next day, Parks was tried on charges of disorderly conduct and violating a local ordinance. The trial lasted 30 minutes. After being found guilty and fined $10, plus $4 in court costs, Parks appealed her conviction and formally challenged the legality of racial segregation.




  • Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.
    Monday Dec 5, 1955
    Rosa Parks

    Discussing actions to respond to Parks' arrest

    Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.
    Monday Dec 5, 1955

    That Monday night, 50 leaders of the African-American community gathered to discuss actions to respond to Parks' arrest. Edgar Nixon, the president of the NAACP, said, "My God, look what segregation has put in my hands!" Parks was considered the ideal plaintiff for a test case against city and state segregation laws, as she was seen as a responsible, mature woman with a good reputation.




  • Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.
    Monday Dec 5, 1955
    Rosa Parks

    Discussing The boycott Strategies

    Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.
    Monday Dec 5, 1955

    After the success of the one-day boycott, a group of 16 to 18 people gathered at the Mt. Zion AME Zion Church to discuss boycott strategies. At that time Parks was introduced but not asked to speak, despite a standing ovation and calls from the crowd for her to speak; when she asked if she should say something, the reply was, "Why, you've said enough." The group agreed that a new organization was needed to lead the boycott effort if it were to continue. Rev. Ralph Abernathy suggested the name "Montgomery Improvement Association" (MIA). The name was adopted, and the MIA was formed. Its members elected as their president Martin Luther King, Jr., a relative newcomer to Montgomery, who was a young and mostly unknown minister of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.


  • Spain
    Wednesday Dec 14, 1955
    Francisco Franco

    Admitted to the United Nations

    Spain
    Wednesday Dec 14, 1955

    Spain was then admitted to the United Nations in 1955.


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