Tuesday is the 60th anniversary of the genesis of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
On Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give her bus seat to a white passenger. Her arrest sparked the 381-day boycott of Montgomery buses by blacks to protest segregated seating. Parks was arrested because segregation on buses was legal in Montgomery at the time.
Parks, an NAACP member, wasn’t the first to refuse to give up a seat, but her action led to the bus boycott. In 1956, the Supreme Court ruled to ban segregation on public buses.
Hillary Clinton is among the speakers during today's commemorations that will be at the Montgomery, Alabama, church that headquartered the boycott. The church, Dexter Avenue Baptist, was pastored by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The 60th anniversary of the bus boycott will put a spotlight on Montgomery again as weeklong commemoration celebrates the seminal moment of the civil rights movement.
The bus boycott is widely credited with helping spark the modern civil rights movement.
City bells will chime on the anniversary of Parks' arrest and a new historic marker will be placed at her arrest site, near the transfer station where the large city blue buses lumber in and out.