Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, today for disregarding the municipal segregation ordinance when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man. Her refusal brought on the Montgomery Bus Boycott and challenged segregated transportation in the south.

"While thousands of other Negroes boycotted Montgomery city lines in protest, Mrs. Rosa Parks was fined $14 in police court today for disregarding a driver's order to move to the rear of a bus last Thursday," reported The Bridgeport Telegram on December 6, 1955.

NOTE: The protest was not an easy battle, but it caught the attention of newspapers across the country and the National City Bus Lines in Montgomery. In 1956, newspapers estimated 65 percent of the bus company's patrons were black and 95 percent of the blacks in Montgomery participated in the 10-week boycott. As a result, National City Bus Lines was forced to hike fares and limit service just to break even.

Tragedy in Tacoma
On Sunday, four police officers were shot to death while sitting in a coffee shop in Parkland, Washington (a suburb of Tacoma). The suspect, 37-year-old Maurice Clemmons, has not been apprehended as of this writing. This terrible tragedy is the third such mass police shooting in 2009.... Read More.