What was the verdict in Rosa Parks's first court case?

Answer 1

The US Supreme Court never heard Rosa Parks' case. Ms. Parks was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct on December 1, 1955, jailed overnight, and released the next day on $100 bond. She appeared before judge John B. Scott in Montgomery Municipal Court on December 4, and was fined $10 plus $4 court costs. Although her attorney, Fred Gray, immediately filed an appeal, he realized the Parks' case could be tied up in Alabama state courts for years.

Although Parks' case didn't go to the Supreme Court, her experience mobilized the African-American community to organize a bus boycott, depriving the city of their economic support and attracting a national audience. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., played an important role in organizing and motivating the community.

Meanwhile, attorney Fred Gray and his colleague, Charles Langford, consulted with NAACP Legal Defense Fund lawyers Robert Carter and Thurgood Marshall about a plan of action. Both Carter and Marshall had been lead counsel on the cases consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education, (1954). Marshall had argued for Brown's side before the US Supreme Court in 1952 and 1953 (the decision was released in May of 1954), and had succeeded in ending legal segregation in public schools.

The four attorneys decided a strategy similar to the one in Brown would be most appropriate for pursuing the bus segregation issue. Gray approached Aurelia Browder and three other women, Claudette Colvin, Susie McDonald, and Mary Louise Smith, who had also experienced abuse from the Montgomery bus system, and convinced them to become plaintiffs in a federal civil action law suit against the city and Mayor W. A. Gayle.

On February 1, 1956, Fred Gray filed suit in US District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, seeking a permanent injunction against the city's bus segregation policy. On June 4, 1956, the three-judge panel reviewing Browder v. Gayle (142 F. Supp. 707 (1956)) declared segregation unconstitutional by a vote of 2-1, determining that the "separate but equal" precedent established in Plessy v. Ferguson, (1896) "... can no longer be safely followed as a correct statement of the law." While this followed the Court's thinking in Brown v. Board of Education, (1954), only the single dissenting judge cited the case, claiming Brown only addressed public education, and left the "separate but equal" doctrine intact in other areas of life.

The city of Montgomery appealed the decision on June 5, but on November 13, 1956, the US Supreme Court denied the city's petition, affirming the District Court ruling without issuing a written opinion. Racial segregation on buses operating within state boundaries was outlawed, and the city of Montgomery received an official court order to integrate buses on December 20, 1956.

The court order brought an end to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted 381 days.

Browder v. Gayle, (1956) may have provided the legal impetus for change, but Rosa Parks' courage and dignity catalyzed the national Civil Rights Movement.

For more information about Browder v. Gayle, (1956) and other related cases, see Related Questions and Related Links, below.

Answer 2

State of Alabama v. M. L. King, Jr.,(1956)

The US Supreme Court wasn't involved with the case against Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The issue was heard in the Alabama State Courts, which found Dr. King guilty of violating a 1921 Conspiracy law that prohibited boycotting lawful businesses. King was fined $500 plus $500 court costs, or sentenced to 386 days in jail.

Dr. King decided to appeal the case, converting the sentence into 386 days in jail; however, he remained out on his own recognizance while the matter was under consideration. The Alabama Court of Appeals rejected King's hearing in April 1957, because his lawyers missed the 60-day filing deadline. King ultimately paid the the fine, in December 1957.

The case related to the Montgomery bus boycott that reached the US Supreme Court was Browder v. Gayle, (1956). Dr. King wasn't a party to that suit.


For more information about Browder v. Gayle, (1956) and related information, see Related Questions, below.

Answer 3

Sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks and 5 other unknown women at the time who were Claudette Colvin, Aurelia Browder, Mary Louise Smith and Susie McDonald, on 1 December 1955, and the Montgomery bus boycott was a 13-month mass protest that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional.

Answer 4

the world