Who didn't give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott?

• A. Claudette Colvin
• B. Dorothy Height
• C. Ida Wells
• D. Rosa Parks

Answer: (D)

The question focuses on a pivotal act of refusal that sparked a major movement in the Civil Rights era. Rosa Parks, an African American civil rights activist, refused to give up her seat to a white person on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus. That moment of quiet defiance became a powerful symbol of protest and led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a 381-day boycott organized by local leaders and the NAACP that ultimately helped overturn bus segregation when the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional in Browder v. Gayle. Claudette Colvin did something similar earlier, but Parks’ act received far greater attention and became the iconic catalyst for the boycott. Dorothy Height was a prominent civil rights leader who supported the movement, and Ida Wells (Ida B. Wells) was a 19th-century journalist and anti-lynching advocate, not connected to this event.