Some of the most important events of the Civil Rights Movement occurred in the Black Belt of Alabama. These included Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her bus seat, which led to the Montgomery bus boycott; the Selma to Montgomery marches of 1965 and voter registration reform drives, focusing in Selma, to enable African Americans to vote (see Voting Rights Act). They had been essentially disenfranchised after conservative white Democrats regained political power in the state in the late 19th century. Whites made voter registration and voting so difficult that most blacks and many poor whites were excluded from the political system for decades.