Rosa Parks Arrested for Refusing to Yield Bus Seat in Montgomery

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a trained NAACP activist and secretary of the Montgomery chapter, is arrested for refusing to yield her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery city bus. Parks is chosen by the NAACP as an ideal plaintiff — she had long been active in civil rights, is dignified and well-respected. Her arrest triggers the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Parks is less spontaneous 'tired seamstress' than the mythology suggests; she is a deliberate activist who had attended the Highlander Folk School.