The Fifties

by David Halberstam

Soon two Montgomery policemen arrived. Was it true that the driver had asked her to get up? they asked. Yes, she said. Why hadn’t she obeyed? She felt she shouldn’t have to. “Why do you push us around?” she asked. “I don’t know, but the law is the law, and you’re under arrest,” one of the policemen said. Only then did she get up. The police escorted her to the patrol car. The police went back to talk to Blake. Did he want to press charges? Yes, he answered. The police took Parks to jail, where she was fingerprinted and charged with violating the city’s segregation laws. She was allowed one phone call, and she called her home. Her mother answered and asked instinctively, “Did they beat you?” No, she said, she was physically all right. She was the first person ever so charged—the first of many tactical mistakes on the part of city officials, for it gave the local black community what it had been seeking: the case on which to hang a lawsuit.