Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks became a symbol of America Civil Rights when she refused to give up her seat to a white woman. She was born in Tuskegee, Alabama February 4^th, 1913. Growing up she attended segregated schools in Montgomery, Alabama, but dropped out to take care of her grandmother and mother in Pine Level, Alabama. Later, she returned to Montgomery, and started working for voter registration and desegregation. She met her husband Raymond Parks, a barber and an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which then Rosa started to work for as a chapter’s youth leader. She joined the NAACP in 1943.

On Dec 1^st, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, she sparked a national movement. There were segregated buses during this time. The bus driver would draw a line splitting the bus that separated whites and blacks. When more white people started to get on, the bus driver would continue to move the line back, leaving barely any room for black people to sit. Most of them had to stand. When Rosa was riding the bus that day, she was asked to give up her seat. The bus driver demanded that she move further back, and threatened to call the police if she did not move back, but she refused.

She was asked that day by someone, if she was tired. She said she wasn’t tired or old. But what she was tired of giving in. She was arrested for violating city ordinances. She got bailed out of jail and NAACP president rallied black commuters for a city wide bus boycott. African Americans did not ride the bus for months. They carpooled instead, and rode bikes, and evens stayed home from school/work. However, sometimes it wasn’t all nice. Whites would beat up African Americans and arrest people for boycotting.

On Dec. 20^th, 1956, Montgomery’s buses were desegregated by the order of the supreme court. The unity and spirit people maintained over the year of staying off the buses was encouraged by Martin Luther King Jr. at this time.

            After bus boycott Parks and her husband both lost their jobs. They were forced to move to Detroit, Michigan where she worked as a seamstress, secretary, and board member for planned parent hood. In 1992, Rosa published Rosa Parks: My Story, an autobiography recounting her life in the segregated South. In 1995, she published Quiet Strength which includes her memoirs and focuses on the role that religious faith played throughout her life. In 1996, she earned the presidential medal of freedom. In 1999, Time magazine chose Rosa Parks as one of the 20 most influential people in the 20^th century by her simple act of protest. She galvanized a civil rights revolution.  On Oct, 24^th, 2005 she died at the age of 92. In 2013, President Obama unveiled a statue in the capitol building commemorating Parks’ significant history.

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