In 1900, Montgomery passed a city law to segregate bus passengers by race. Bus drivers had the power to assign seats to achieve this. According to the law, no passenger would be forced to move or give up their seat and remain standing if the bus was crowded and there were no other seats available. Montgomery bus drivers agreed to ask black passengers to move when there were no more seats reserved for whites. The first four rows of seats on a Montgomery bus were reserved for whites. The buses had "colored" sections for African Americans usually in the back of the bus. African Americans could sit in the middle rows until the white section filled up. African Americans were not allowed to sit in the same row or across the aisle as whites. For years the black community had complained about the injustice of the situation. Parks said, “My resistance to mistreatment on the bus didn't start with that particular arrest, I walked a lot around Montgomery.” Rosa Louise McCauley was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the United States Congress called "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement". One day in 1943, Parks got on the bus and paid his fare. She then moved to her seat but the driver James F. Blake told her to follow the city rules and enter the Parks he got off the bus, but before she could get back on the back door, he walked away leaving her to walk home under the rain. On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to let a white male get up from his seat in the colored section. Rosa Parks wasn't the only person who refused to leave her seat on the bus. Rosa Parks' act of daring became an important symbol of the civil rights movement and became an icon of racial segregation. He arranged… middle of paper… a seat for a white man in 1955. One day in 1943, Parks got on the bus and paid his fare. She then moved to her seat but driver James F. Blake told her to follow city rules and get back on the bus through the back door. Parks got off the bus, but before she could get back in through the back door, he walked away, leaving her to walk home in the rain. On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to get up from her seat in the colored section in front of a white male. Two police officers arrested Rosa Parks, she was forty-two years old at the time of the arrest. On December 5, Parks was found guilty of violating segregation laws and was fined ten dollars plus $4 in court costs. She wasn't physically tired, she was tired of giving up. That's why she stood up for herself! In conclusion, History.com states that Rosa Parks helped start the civil rights movement in the United States