History Makers: A Look Back on the Montgomery Bus Boycott 60 Years Later

The arrest of Rosa Parks launched a year-long protest.

Before Rosa Parks - The Women’s Political Council, a group of Black professionals formed in 1946, began challenging the practice of making Blacks enter from the back of the bus and not giving them the same bus service in their neighborhoods as in the white part of town. After failed attempts to receive support for changes from Mayor W.A. Gayle in early 1954, African-American groups warned the city that a boycott was brewing.   (Photo: Photo12/UIG/Getty Images)
Young Rebels: Claudette Colvin and Mary Louise Smith - Before Rosa Parks became the face of the Montgomery bus boycott, there were other individuals who protested segregation on city buses. In 1955, Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl, was arrested for not giving up her seat. In the following months, Mary Louise Smith, 18, was arrested for the same reason.(Photo: Bettmann/Corbis)
The Woman Who Changed It All - Before she became “the mother of the civil rights movement,” Parks was an active member of the Montgomery NAACP and was the organization’s secretary. On Dec. 1, 1955, Parks decided to follow the actions of the younger demonstrators before her. After Parks’s arrest, the Women’s Political Council began organizing and spreading the word about a one-day boycott. A planning meeting took place at Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dexter Avenue Baptist Church on Dec. 2.  (Photo: Bettmann/Corbis)
01n/03/arve/G2375/045Unity for the Cause - The MIA campaign was supported by collecting money at meetings and from civil rights organizations around the country. The NAACP also helped in bringing legal action against the city for its bus segregation laws. Carpools were formed to take individuals to their destinations.(Photo: Bettmann/Corbis)

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Young Rebels: Claudette Colvin and Mary Louise Smith - Before Rosa Parks became the face of the Montgomery bus boycott, there were other individuals who protested segregation on city buses. In 1955, Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl, was arrested for not giving up her seat. In the following months, Mary Louise Smith, 18, was arrested for the same reason.(Photo: Bettmann/Corbis)

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