Caption:
Even though slavery had ended at the end of the Civil War, many African Americans still were not treated equally with other Americans. For example, for many years African Americans went to different schools than other Americans, had to use different drinking fountains, and were only allowed to sit in some sections of movie theaters. They even had to sit in the back of busses! This system was called segregation. In 1955, a woman in Montgomery, Alabama, named Rosa Parks decided she didn’t want to be treated like a second-class citizen anymore, and she refused to sit in the African-American section of the bus. She was arrested for challenging segregation laws, but her arrest set off a chain of protests for more equality for African-Americans. This effort became known as the civil rights movement. It took many years and lots of protests, but eventually segregation ended in America.