Pine Level

The small Alabama town where Claudette was born.

Montgomery

The central Alabama city, which is the main setting of the book.

Montgomery Buses

Claudette and many other blacks rode the bus to work and school in Montgomery. The segregation in the buses was so egregious that many blacks rebelled, though Claudette was first among them.

Jim Crow Laws

The laws which imposed racial segregation in the American south.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

Montgomery blacks refused to ride the buses in Montgomery for over 380 days in order to protest bus segregation.

Dexter Avenue Baptist Church

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s church where many civil rights meetings were held.

The Montgomery City Jail

Claudette spent time in the Montgomery city jail, just as many major Civil Rights leaders did.

The Civil Rights movement

The movement for racial equality in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s.

Browder v. Gale