Which statement best describes the relationship between the Fourteenth
Amendment and the African American civil rights movement?
O
A. The Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause specifically
protected African Americans' rights in federal courts, but it left
racist legislatures with a great deal of independence.
B. The Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause gave African
Americans the right to sue in court for the first time, but it limited
their ability to appeal unfavorable rulings.
O
C. The Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause helped
African Americans organize grassroots protests, but it did not
provide substantial legal protections
O
D. The scope of the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection
clause was expanded to protect more individual rights in response
to African Americans' legal challenges.
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One of the main events that symbolize this resistance dates back to 1955, when Rosa Parks, a member of the NACCP, when taking a bus in Alabama did not give way to a white passenger when the vehicle was overbooked. Although she was seated in a row allowed for blacks, the law required them to give up their seat to whites when the vehicle filled up.

Parks was arrested. Released after paying bail, she joined Martin Luther King, pastor and leader of black civil rights movements in the United States and a boycott against the bus system organized a few days after Parks. The boycott remained for more than a year, and in 1956, the US Supreme Court declared racial segregation in public transport unconstitutional.