On December 1, 1995, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old black seamstress, sat in the front part of the bus, which had been a whites-only section both by custom and law. When the bus driver asked her to move to the back, she refused. She was consequently arrested on charges of violating the racial segregation law.

Development of the Movement

E.D. Nixon, chair of the NAACP of Alabama, insisted on staging strikes and the boycott of buses, taking the opportunity to put pressure on the whites through mass demonstrations. Concerned over the lack of solid leadership and specific goals, he formed Montogomery Improvement Association (MIA) with black clergymen and other blacks leading the bus boycott and recommended Martin Luther King. Jr. as the chair of MIA.