Rosa Parks
The Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement
Rosa Park was a famous black American woman
who helped fight for equal rights in Alabama. Rosa was born in February
4, 1913 in Alabama. Rosa grew up at that time when black people did not
have the same rights as white people did. Rosa Parks went to school at
the black elementary school in her town. Rosa left school because of a
death in her family. Her first job was sewing clothes for people. She
and Raymond, her husband, become active in the fight for civil right for
black people. They joined in the NAACP, National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, to help in the fight for equal right.
Once she sat on the bus, there were no more seats where the black people
could sit. So she sat where the white people sat. Then a white person
came and he wanted to sit, so the bus driver told Rosa to get up and
stand. But she refused, so the bus driver called the police and she got
arrested. A lot of people admired Rosa because of how she helped the
civil right movement.
Rosa Parks sits on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1956.
Rosa Louise Parks has been called the "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement." By not giving up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus in Montgomery , Alabama , nearly 50 years ago. Rosa Parks started thus, a protest that was felt throughout the United States . Her quiet, courageous act changed America and redirected the course of history. She was arrested and fined for breaking the law.
In
response to her arrest, black men and women in Montgomery boycotted, or
refused to use, the city buses. They demanded an end to segregation, or
laws that denied equal rights to black people. A young pastor at the
local church named Martin Luther King Jr. led the boycott. Because of
the protesters' refusal to ride the buses, the bus system nearly went
out of business.
Many believe that Park’s bold decision triggered the civil rights movement, a struggle to grant Americans the same rights, regardless of their colour. "She sat down in order that we might stand up," said civil rights leader Jesse Jackson yesterday. "Her imprisonment opened the doors for our long journey to freedom."
Park’s action showed how one person could make a big impact. She inspired others, including Martin Luther King Jr., to use non-violence and civil disobedience as a way to protest problems in society. The Montgomery bus boycott lasted 381 days. Throughout those months, churches and homes in the black community were attacked. Despite threats to their lives, the community continued to refuse to ride the buses. In November 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregation on buses. After the court order arrived in Montgomery, blacks began riding the buses again, sitting wherever they pleased.
The greatest moments in history, the
ones that have truly mattered and have taken us to a better place, are
made up of scores of these singular acts by ordinary, everyday people
who could no longer tolerate the crap and the nonsense of those in
charge. Today, whether it is a student who holds a sit-in to get the
army recruiters off his campus, or the mother of a dead soldier who
refuses to leave the front gate of the president's ranch, we continue to
be saved by brave people who risk ridicule and rejection but end up
turning huge tides of public opinion in the direction of righteousness.
We owe them enormous debts of gratitude. It is not easy to stand up for
what is right, especially when everyone else is afraid to leave the
comfortable path of conformity.
Park’s action showed how one person could make a big impact. She inspired others, including Martin Luther King Jr., to use non-violence and civil disobedience as a way to protest problems in society. The Montgomery bus boycott lasted 381 days. Throughout those months, churches and homes in the black community were attacked. Despite threats to their lives, the community continued to refuse to ride the buses. In November 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregation on buses. After the court order arrived in Montgomery, blacks began riding the buses again, sitting wherever they pleased.
The greatest moments in history, the
ones that have truly mattered and have taken us to a better place, are
made up of scores of these singular acts by ordinary, everyday people
who could no longer tolerate the crap and the nonsense of those in
charge. Today, whether it is a student who holds a sit-in to get the
army recruiters off his campus, or the mother of a dead soldier who
refuses to leave the front gate of the president's ranch, we continue to
be saved by brave people who risk ridicule and rejection but end up
turning huge tides of public opinion in the direction of righteousness.
We owe them enormous debts of gratitude. It is not easy to stand up for
what is right, especially when everyone else is afraid to leave the
comfortable path of conformity.
Rosa
Parks may have been alone on that bus at the moment of her arrest but
she wasn't alone for long. The old order was shaken, the world was
upended and, as a people, we were given a chance for a bit of
redemption. When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the bus 50
years ago, she was tired and weary from a long day of work. At least
that's how the event has been retold countless times and recorded in our
history books. But, there's a misconception here that does not do
justice to the woman whose act of courage began turning the wheels of
the civil rights movement on that fateful day.
Rosa Parks was physically tired, but no more than you or I after a long day's work. In fact, under other circumstances, she would have probably given up her seat willingly to a child or elderly person. But this time Parks was tired of the treatment she and other African Americans received every day of their lives, what with the racism, segregation, and Jim Crow laws of the time.
"Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it," writes Parks in her recent book, Quiet Strength, (Zondervan Publishing House, 1994). "I kept thinking about my mother and my grandparents, and how strong they were. I knew there was a possibility of being mistreated, but an opportunity was being given to me to do what I had asked of others." The rest of Parks' story is American history...her arrest and trial, a 381-day Montgomery bus boycott, and, finally, the Supreme Court's ruling in November 1956 that segregation on transportation is unconstitutional.
Who is Rosa Parks?
Name: Rosa Louise McCauley Parks
Birth: February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama, to James
and Leona McCauley
Childhood: Grew up on a small farm with her brother,
mother, and grandparents.
Childhood Fears: Hearing the Ku Klux Klan ride at night,
listening to lynching, and being afraid the house would burn down.
School: Attended a school for African-American children. The old, one-room schoolhouse was only open five months a year and just went up to sixth grade. In 1924, at age 11, she was sent to Montgomery to continue her studies. Five years later, she left school in order to care for her sick grandmother, and later, her mother.
Marriage/Young Adult Years:
Married barber and civil rights activist Raymond Parks in 1932. With
Raymond's support, Rosa finally graduated from high school in 1934.
Together, they worked for the Montgomery chapter of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Jobs:
1930s - 1955: Seamstress
1943: Appointed secretary of the NAACP's Montgomery
branch and later its youth leader. 1965 - 1988: Worked as a receptionist
and office assistant for John Conyers, an African-American congressman.
Part of her job involved helping homeless people get housing. 1987
-2005: Established the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for
Self-Development. Its ongoing mission is to motivate and direct youth to
achieve their highest potential.
Greatest Achievement: Sparking the modern civil rights movement in the United States by refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. Rosa Park’s arrest for breaking Montgomery segregation laws started a boycott of the city bus line that lasted 381 days. This eventually led to the 1956 Supreme Court ruling declaring segregation illegal on public buses.
Later Adult Years: After moving to Michigan in 1957, Rosa Parks continued the fight for equal rights and treatment for African Americans. On several occasions, Mrs. Parks returned to Montgomery to support Dr. King in demonstrations and civil rights marches.
Awards: Over the years, Rosa Parks has received hundreds of awards and honours, including the Medal of Freedom Award, presented by President Clinton in 1996.
Rosa Parks, whose act of civil disobedience in 1955 inspired the modern civil rights movement, died on Monday, the 25th Oct. 2005 in Detroit, Michigan. She was 92.
Perhaps the best way to celebrate this most important day in American history is to ask yourself what it is that you can do today to make a difference. What risk can you take to move the ball forward? What is that one thing you've been wanting to say to your co-workers or classmates that you've been afraid to say but in your heart of hearts you know needs to be said? Why wait another day to say it or do it?
There is probably no better way to honour Rosa Parks and yourself than for you to put a stop to an injustice you see, not allowing it to continue for one more second. Do something.
Rosa Parks De Bus at Detroit Henry Ford Museum
Rosa Parks sits on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1956.
© 2008 RosaPark