Final answer:
African Americans were forced to ride in the back of the bus and give up their seats to white passengers if the front of the bus was full. Civil rights activists, including Rosa Parks and the Freedom Riders, challenged these discriminatory practices, leading to the desegregation of buses.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the era of segregation in the United States, African American passengers were forced to obey harsh city ordinances in cities such as Montgomery, Alabama. African Americans were required to ride in the back section of the bus. They had to go to the back of the bus, they weren’t allowed to sit next to White passengers, and if the front section of the bus was occupied and passenger requested an African American's seat, they had to give up their place to the White passenger.
This practice was challenged by civil rights activists like Rosa Parks, who became famous for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger in 1955, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Others, like the Freedom Riders in 1961, directly opposed the segregation laws by deliberately seating Black volunteers in the front and White riders in the back, highlighting and challenging the discriminatory laws of the time.
These efforts eventually led to the desegregation of the city's buses, after an Alabama federal court ruled the segregation ordinance unconstitutional in 1956, a ruling upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Learn more about Bus segregation