The Supreme Court
had struck down the "separate but equal" precedent of Plessy v.
Ferguson with their decision in the Brown v. Board of Education case,
making segregation illegal. But were states actually following orders?
Many people know the story of Rosa Parks. On Thursday, Dec. 1, 1955, after a long day at work as a seamstress, Mrs. Parks boarded a bus in Montgomery
to go home. She sat in the fifth row with three other blacks, the
farthest row forward blacks could legally occupy. As the bus filled up
along the route, however, more whites entered the bus. Eventually, one
white was left standing. According to Alabama
law during the '50s, blacks and whites couldn't occupy the same row.
When told by the bus driver to give up the row to the white man, three
of the blacks left for the back of the bus, but Mrs. Parks simply
refused. She was quickly arrested and sent to jail.<span />