Rosa Parks
Abstract
Rosa Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S congress recognized as “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom movement”. Born in 1913, Rosa grew up in an exceedingly ethnic segregated America where black people were being mistreated in most of society’s aspects. Her refusal to surrender her bus seat to a white male passenger on a Montgomery, Alabama bus, on December 1, 1955, led to her arrest which ultimately trigged a wave of involvement within the civil rights movement in the United States. Her quite courageous act changed America, its view of black people and redirected the course of history.
Childhood
Mrs. Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her childhood brought early experience with racial discrimination and activism for racial equality. After her parents separated, Rosa’s mother moved the family to Pine Level, Alabama to live with her parents, Rose and Sylvester Edwards on their farm. Both Rosa’s grandparents were former slaves and strong advocates for racial equality. The city of Pine Level had new school building and bus transportation for white students whilst African-American students walked to the one-room schoolhouse, often lacking desks and adequate school supplies.
Ordered to the back of the bus
The Montgomery, Alabama city code required all public transportation to be segregated and that bus drivers had the “powers of a police officer of the city while in actual charge of any bus for the purposes of carrying out the provisions" of the code. While operating a bus, drivers were required to provide separate but equal accommodations for white and black passengers by assigning seats. This was accomplished with a line roughly in the middle of the bus separating white passengers in the front of the bus and African-American passengers in the back. When an African-American passenger boarded the bus, they had to get on at the front to pay their fare and then get off and
Rosa Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S congress recognized as “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom movement”. Born in 1913, Rosa grew up in an exceedingly ethnic segregated America where black people were being mistreated in most of society’s aspects. Her refusal to surrender her bus seat to a white male passenger on a Montgomery, Alabama bus, on December 1, 1955, led to her arrest which ultimately trigged a wave of involvement within the civil rights movement in the United States. Her quite courageous act changed America, its view of black people and redirected the course of history.
Childhood
Mrs. Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her childhood brought early experience with racial discrimination and activism for racial equality. After her parents separated, Rosa’s mother moved the family to Pine Level, Alabama to live with her parents, Rose and Sylvester Edwards on their farm. Both Rosa’s grandparents were former slaves and strong advocates for racial equality. The city of Pine Level had new school building and bus transportation for white students whilst African-American students walked to the one-room schoolhouse, often lacking desks and adequate school supplies.
Ordered to the back of the bus
The Montgomery, Alabama city code required all public transportation to be segregated and that bus drivers had the “powers of a police officer of the city while in actual charge of any bus for the purposes of carrying out the provisions" of the code. While operating a bus, drivers were required to provide separate but equal accommodations for white and black passengers by assigning seats. This was accomplished with a line roughly in the middle of the bus separating white passengers in the front of the bus and African-American passengers in the back. When an African-American passenger boarded the bus, they had to get on at the front to pay their fare and then get off and
References: Rosa Parks – The Story behind the Bus (http://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/rosaparks/story.asp) Rosa Parks – NE (http://www.ne.se/lang/rosa-parks) Montgomery Bus Boycott – The story of Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement (http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/)