NEXT UP! 2 68 seats for white passengers. Several people challenged these laws and were arrested. However, on the 1st of December 1955, one incident led to mass protests from the black community. The 42-year-old seamstress and civil-rights activist, Rosa Parks, was tired of being treated as a secondclass citizen. She refused to give up her seat for a white man and was arrested. Consequently, the leaders of the black community organised a boycott against the Montgomery bus company. For 381 days, all African Americans protested by refusing to ride buses in Montgomery. In addition, the boycotters were encouraged to walk or ride bikes. This led to a major loss of income for the bus company. The authorities in Montgomery fined black taxi drivers for helping boycotters get to work. In response, one of the leaders of the boycott organised a carpool system, involving 300 cars to help people get where they needed. In November 1956, the US Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation laws were unconstitutional. The non-violent mass protest in Montgomery became an example for other campaigns that followed in its aftermath, all with the aim an incident – atvik a seamstress – saumakona civil rights – borgararéttindi a citizen – borgari to be encouraged – vera hvattur til a loss – tap income – tekjur to fine – sekta to carpool – samferða í bíl Supreme Court – Hæstiréttur to rule – hér: að úrskurða unconstitutional – andstætt stjórnarskrá aftermath – eftirköst an aim – markmið “The time had just come when I had been pushed as far as I could stand to be pushed, I suppose. I had decided that I would have to know, once and for all, what rights I had as a human being, and a citizen.” Rosa Parks Rosa Parks sits in front of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, after the Supreme Court ruled segregation illegal on the city bus system on 21 Dec., 1956.
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