April 2025 - Did you receive a postcard from the Middle District of Alabama? The Court is currently in the process of updating our listing and that process includes the sending of a postcard to persons randomly selected from the list of registered voters. If you received a card, it is not a scam Read more
On 60th Anniversary, Video Recalls How Rosa Parks’ Arrest Sparked Historic Ruling
The full story of Rosa Parks’ arrest, and how it led to a federal court decision to strike down segregated buses, is the theme of “Ride to Justice,” a new U.S. courts video released on the 60th anniversary of her historic protest.
The video, drawing on interviews with U.S. District Judge Myron H. Thompson and lawyer Fred Gray, notes that Parks was not the first woman arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white patron. But when Parks’ arrest—on Dec. 1, 1955—sparked a citywide bus boycott, Gray enlisted four previously arrested women to file a class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court.
A yearlong boycott ended after the Supreme Court affirmed in Browder v. Gayle that segregated buses are unconstitutional.