Final answer:
The bus rules in places like Atlanta and Nashville during segregation required black passengers to sit at the back of the bus and give up their seats for white passengers. This was a daily ritual that was a humiliating aspect of the broader Jim Crow laws. Such practices were among the many that spurred the Civil Rights Movement, including the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Freedom Rides.
Step-by-step explanation:
The bus rules in Atlanta and Nashville during the era of segregation required African Americans to adhere to strict segregation policies. These policies were part of the broader Jim Crow laws that mandated racial segregation in all public facilities in the states of the former Confederate States of America, including public transportation. In cities like Birmingham, and by extension Atlanta and Nashville, the humiliating routine for black bus riders included entering the front of the bus to pay the fare, then exiting and reboarding from the rear door to take a seat at the back. If no seats were available or if a white rider was standing, black passengers had to give up their seats. This pervasive, day-to-day instance of segregation was deeply personal and emblematic of the larger system of racial oppression in the South.
The cruel practices inflicted upon black bus riders was one of the catalysts for the Civil Rights Movement, most notably exemplified by events such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, led by figures like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the Freedom Rides organized by CORE and SNCC, wherein volunteers, both black and white, rode buses through the South to protest and test segregation laws.