Martin Luther King 1964

MARCH 22: On this day in 1956, civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King was convicted of organising an illegal boycott by black passengers of buses in Montgomery, Alabama. The boycott was sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat for a white passenger. The action finally ended in success, as in December 1956, bus companies throughout Alabama were forced to comply with a US Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public transport was illegal. Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Martin Luther King, who stayed the weekend in London, pictured today when he left Heathrow Airport for Oslo. He visited London at the invitation of Christian Action.