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African Americans were still required by a Montgomery, Alabama city ordinance to sit in the back half of city buses to yield their seats to white riders if the front half of the bus, reserved for whites, was full.
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African American seamstress, Rosa Parks was on her way home seated in the front row of the "colored section". When the white seats filled, the driver asked Parks and three others to vacate their seats. The other black riders complied, Rosa refused.
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Rosa Parks called E.D. Nixon, a prominent black leader, who bailed her out of jail. African American leaders decided to attack the ordinance using other tactics as well.
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The Women's Political Council, a group of black women working for civil rights, began circulating flyers calling for a boycott of the bus system. This day Rosa would be tried in municipal court.
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This day, a Montgomery federal court ruled that any law requiring racially segregated seating on buses violated the 14th amendment to the US Constitution.
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Montgomery's buses were integrated and the boycott had ended. It had lasted 381 days.
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The city appealed to the US Supreme Court, which upheld the lower court's decision.