Martin Luther King Jnr was convicted of organising an illegal bus boycott in Alabama, the United States and was ordered to pay $500 (£178) or serve 386 days in jail in the case State of Alabama v. Martin Luther King Jnr.
The bus boycott was organised in Montgomery, Alabama after an African American woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on 1st December 1955. Segregation laws at the time required black people to seat at the back of the bus and give up their seats if none were available in the whites only section.
Others had been arrested in Montgomery for refusing to give up their seats on buses prior to Rosa Parks, including 15-year old Claudette Colvin who was arrested on 2nd March 1955. However, her protest action was not used as a trigger for the mass boycott as she was pregnant and unmarried.
The boycott, which started on 5th December 1955, lasted 381 days until buses were desegregated.
The following video summarises the protest:
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