On Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks defied the segregationist Jim Crow laws of the time and refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus for a white male passenger.
Though she wasn't the first to disobey the city's laws, her act of resistance, 60 years ago today, came to be a definitive symbol of the civil rights movement and set off a bus boycott that lasted for over a year.
It culminated in the Supreme Court's 1956 decision to end segregation on public buses. In a statement to an Associated Press reporter in the courtroom, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called the decision "a glorious daybreak to end a long night of enforced segregation."
Parks, who died at the age of 92 in Detroit, was a lifelong activist who had been a member of the NAACP for a decade before her now historic act of resistance.
“I was not tired physically,” she wrote in her biography, correcting the myth that she refused to give up her seat because her feet were tired. “No more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in."
Rosa Parks, who was fined $10 and court costs for violating Montgomery's segregation ordinance for city buses, makes bond for appeal to Circuit Court, Dec. 5, 1955. Signing the bond were E.D. Nixon, center, former state president of the NAACP, and attorney Fred Gray. Gray hinted that the ordinance requiring segregation will be attacked as unconstitutional.
IMAGE: FILE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rosa Parks' booking photo was taken at the time of her arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus to a white passenger on December 1, 1955.
IMAGE: UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
Rosa Parks seated toward the front of the bus, Montgomery, Alabama, 1956.
IMAGE: UNDERWOOD ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES
Rosa Parks, whose refusal to move to the back of a bus, touched off the Montgomery bus boycott and the beginning of the civil rights movement, is fingerprinted by police Lt. D.H. Lackey in Montgomery, Ala., Feb. 22, 1956. She was among some 100 people charged with violating segregation laws.
IMAGE: GENE HERRICK/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rosa Parks arrives at circuit court to be arraigned in the racial bus boycott, Feb. 24, 1956 in Montgomery, Ala. The boycott started last Dec. 5, when Mrs. Parks was fined for refusing to move to the black section of a city bus.
IMAGE: FILE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mrs. Rosa Parks and E.D. Nixon, left, former president of the Alabama NAACP, arrive at court in Montgomery March 19, 1956 for the trial in the racial bus boycott. Mrs. Parks was fined $14 on Dec. 5 for failing to move to the segregated section of a city bus. The boycott started on the day she was fined. There were 91 other defendants.
IMAGE: GENE HERRICK/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Civil Rights worker Rosa Parks, left and Dr. Martin Luther King, second from left, present the Rosa Parks Outstanding Freedom Award to Reverend James Bevel and his wife Diane Bevel in a ceremony at the annual Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Birmingham, Ala., Aug. 13, 1965.
IMAGE: FILE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rosa Parks speaks at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga., Jan. 15, 1969.
IMAGE: JOE HOLLOWAY, JR./ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rosa Parks, center, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man 20 years ago sparked the historic Montgomery bus boycott, is honored, Dec. 5, 1975 at ceremonies commemorating the civil rights crusade in Montgomery. Beside her are Mrs. Jonnie Carr, president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, and U.S. Rep. Walter Fauntroy of Washington, D.C.
IMAGE: FILE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jesse Jackson raises the arm of Rosa Parks as he honored the heroine of the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955, during his appearance before the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, July 19, 1988. Jackson saluted Democratic nominee-to-be Michael Dukakis as a rival who always resisted the temptation to stoop to demagoguery.
IMAGE: FILE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rosa Parks visits an exhibit illustrating her bus ride of December, 1955 at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn., Saturday, July 15, 1995. Parks visited around the city to inaugurate her three-week "Freedom Ride" throughout the country.
IMAGE: TROY GLASGOW/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Civil rights leaders Mrs. Ralph Abernathy, center, Rosa Parks and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, center left, are escorted across the street to an awaiting crowd during the 40th Anniversary celebration in Montgomery, Ala., on Friday Dec. 1, 1995.
Parks, who died at the age of 92 in Detroit, was a lifelong activist who had been a member of the NAACP for a decade before her now historic act of resistance.
“I was not tired physically,” she wrote in her biography, correcting the myth that she refused to give up her seat because her feet were tired. “No more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in."
Rosa Parks, who was fined $10 and court costs for violating Montgomery's segregation ordinance for city buses, makes bond for appeal to Circuit Court, Dec. 5, 1955. Signing the bond were E.D. Nixon, center, former state president of the NAACP, and attorney Fred Gray. Gray hinted that the ordinance requiring segregation will be attacked as unconstitutional.
IMAGE: FILE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rosa Parks' booking photo was taken at the time of her arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus to a white passenger on December 1, 1955.
IMAGE: UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
Rosa Parks seated toward the front of the bus, Montgomery, Alabama, 1956.
IMAGE: UNDERWOOD ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES
Rosa Parks, whose refusal to move to the back of a bus, touched off the Montgomery bus boycott and the beginning of the civil rights movement, is fingerprinted by police Lt. D.H. Lackey in Montgomery, Ala., Feb. 22, 1956. She was among some 100 people charged with violating segregation laws.
IMAGE: GENE HERRICK/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rosa Parks arrives at circuit court to be arraigned in the racial bus boycott, Feb. 24, 1956 in Montgomery, Ala. The boycott started last Dec. 5, when Mrs. Parks was fined for refusing to move to the black section of a city bus.
IMAGE: FILE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mrs. Rosa Parks and E.D. Nixon, left, former president of the Alabama NAACP, arrive at court in Montgomery March 19, 1956 for the trial in the racial bus boycott. Mrs. Parks was fined $14 on Dec. 5 for failing to move to the segregated section of a city bus. The boycott started on the day she was fined. There were 91 other defendants.
IMAGE: GENE HERRICK/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Civil Rights worker Rosa Parks, left and Dr. Martin Luther King, second from left, present the Rosa Parks Outstanding Freedom Award to Reverend James Bevel and his wife Diane Bevel in a ceremony at the annual Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Birmingham, Ala., Aug. 13, 1965.
IMAGE: FILE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rosa Parks speaks at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga., Jan. 15, 1969.
IMAGE: JOE HOLLOWAY, JR./ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rosa Parks, center, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man 20 years ago sparked the historic Montgomery bus boycott, is honored, Dec. 5, 1975 at ceremonies commemorating the civil rights crusade in Montgomery. Beside her are Mrs. Jonnie Carr, president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, and U.S. Rep. Walter Fauntroy of Washington, D.C.
IMAGE: FILE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jesse Jackson raises the arm of Rosa Parks as he honored the heroine of the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955, during his appearance before the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, July 19, 1988. Jackson saluted Democratic nominee-to-be Michael Dukakis as a rival who always resisted the temptation to stoop to demagoguery.
IMAGE: FILE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rosa Parks visits an exhibit illustrating her bus ride of December, 1955 at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn., Saturday, July 15, 1995. Parks visited around the city to inaugurate her three-week "Freedom Ride" throughout the country.
IMAGE: TROY GLASGOW/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Civil rights leaders Mrs. Ralph Abernathy, center, Rosa Parks and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, center left, are escorted across the street to an awaiting crowd during the 40th Anniversary celebration in Montgomery, Ala., on Friday Dec. 1, 1995.
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