The start of the Civil Rights Movement is commonly marked by which event?

• A. The Birmingham Campaign
• B. Brown v Board
• C. Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on the bus
• D. The March on Washington

Answer: (C)

The moment most historians point to as the start of the modern Civil Rights Movement is Rosa Parks choosing not to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. That act sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a citywide, yearlong protest organized by African American communities and leaders that demonstrated the power of mass, nonviolent resistance. The boycott brought national attention, helped propel Martin Luther King Jr. into a leadership role, and led to a legal victory when the courts ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional. While the Brown v. Board of Education decision provided a legal opening for desegregation, the sustained, organized boycott showed how coordinated protest and legal change could be combined to challenge segregation in everyday life. The Birmingham Campaign and the March on Washington were important milestones later on, but the Montgomery Bus Boycott is widely seen as the defining spark that energized the movement.