Jim Crow laws were made in the late 1800s to separate the black people from the white people. Many people were against this segregation of black people, and the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) said that drivers of transportation between states could not segregate blacks. However, the ICC had no say over drivers of buses and taxis in a state, so theses drivers kept on making black people sit in the back of buses and give up their rows to white people. In March of 1955 in the state of Alabama, Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl and student at Booker T. Washington High School in Montgomery, was arrested for not giving up her seat to a white man. Then later, that next December, Rosa Parks was also arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man.
Parks’ arrest was the last straw. December 1, 1955, the night of Parks’ arrest, all who were against it decided to not uses buses or taxis any more, which really hurt the Montgomery city’s transportation system financially. Since many blacks used buses and taxis, this boycott brought serious economic crisis to the city, and it lasted for 11 months. This stress was felt all across the nation. In June of 1956, the district court was deciding the Browder v. Gayle case and voted that Alabama’s racial segregation laws for buses were unconstitutional. The state of Alabama wanted to change this decision as the boycott of buses and taxis continued, so their appeal was moved on to the United States Supreme Court. Finally, on November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court voted in agreement with the district court’s ruling, and by December buses could no longer discriminate against black people.
