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.