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On December 1, 1955, Mrs. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat near the front of a Montgomery, Alabama city bus to a white passenger. The bus driver had her arrested for violating the law. Her response was that she was "tired of giving in". In 1955, the year of her famous bus incident, Mrs. Parks was forty-two years old, and was very well respected in the black community. But long before that day, she fought segregation in her own way. She walked up the stairs of a building rather than riding in an elevator marked "blacks only." She went home thirsty instead of drinking from the "colored only" water fountain. And, Mrs. Parks preferred to walk home from work whenever possible to avoid sitting in the "blacks only" section in the back of the city bus.