On this day in 1955, mild-mannered seamstress Rosa Parks refused bus driver James Blake's order to give up her seat to a white passenger (despite the fact that three of her fellow passengers complied with the request), and so rode that bus all the way to history...The ensuing Montgomery Bus Boycott launched the public career of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., made Parks a household name, and changed race relations in the United States for all time by challenging Jim Crow laws which attempted to create segregated space in 'The Land of the Free' where 'all men are created equal'. Despite the cruelties of the White Citizens' Council the boycott lasted more than a year, with the US Supreme Court finally resolving the impasse by forcing the desegregation of buses.
For her trouble, Rosa Parks was arrested, and fined $14.
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