Which case led to the Montgomery Bus desegregation after the Montgomery Bus Boycott?

• A. Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
• B. Browder v. Gayle (1956)
• C. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
• D. Cooper v. Aaron (1958)

Answer: (B)

The key idea is how a legal challenge directly targeting the segregated bus system forced change after the boycott. Browder v. Gayle challenged Montgomery’s bus segregation as unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. The courts ruled that segregating riders on city buses violated equal protection and ordered desegregation. That decision, upheld in 1956, ended the legal basis for bus segregation and effectively ended the boycott by making desegregated buses the law in Montgomery.

Other cases are important in civil rights history but address different issues or contexts: Plessy v. Ferguson established the long-standing “separate but equal” framework; Brown v. Board of Education declared school segregation unconstitutional; Cooper v. Aaron affirmed federal authority to enforce desegregation in schools. None of these directly mandated Montgomery bus desegregation the way Browder v. Gayle did.