Where was the civil rights movement?
The spark that started the modern Civil Rights movement occurred in December of 1955. Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, as Montgomery, Alabama law required. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. became the spokesman for the protest that developed and led the Black boycott of the Montgomery Bus system. The result was felt nation wide. Sit ins at all White lunch counters, marches, and demonstrations forced the government to act. In 1957, the first Blacks tried to enroll in Central High School, in Little Rock. Whites and the governor blocked their way. President Eisenhower had to use troops to protect the Black students and allow them entrance to the High School. Eventually, the Civil Rights Movement encompased the entire nation.
