Which federal court case ended legal segregation on Montgomery buses in 1956?

Browder v. Gayle ended legal segregation on Montgomery buses in 1956. A three-judge federal panel ruled that Alabama and Montgomery laws requiring segregated bus seating violated the Fourteenth Amendment.

The plaintiffs included Aurelia Browder, Claudette Colvin, Mary Louise Smith, and Susie McDonald. Their lawsuit was chosen instead of Rosa Parks’s criminal case because it directly challenged the constitutionality of the segregation laws.

The Supreme Court affirmed the lower court’s ruling in November 1956. Montgomery’s bus boycott ended soon afterward, but the victory came through the federal court case rather than through a state legislative repeal. The decision became a crucial legal milestone in the campaign against segregated public transportation.