The Rebellious Life Of Mrs. Rosa Parks Essay

When it comes finding information about a of historical events, there are different methods in which information can be retrieved some of them is by using the internet, reading articles or journal about the topic or reading a book. The topic that I chose is the boycotting of the busses in Montgomery, Alabama which came into play when Rosa Parks refused to give up her sit for a white man. To find out why she refused to give up her seat, I used the book “The Rebellious life of Mrs. Rosa Parks” by Jeanne Theoharis. Though the book was my source of information, the author used different ways to gather he information such as using historian like Douglas Brinkley, old articles or magazine form the time or even the living witnesses. In the book it demonstrates her early age of her being rebellious as a child. Growing up in the south the African American community were always disrespected in that when they were walking down the street a “white” person had the write to verbally abuse them in that they called nigger”. So, in one incident Rosa Parks was
walking down the street from school and a white boy decided to knock the books of her hand, Rosa decided to talk back to her. This was not accepted by society and it got most African Americans in trouble in that they could be arrested if the person decided to call the police. The other rebellious act that she went on doing was she did not want use to use her body to get out of trouble. For most times when African Americans got into trouble with their employees or the police officers, they would flirt with them so that they do not face any consequences and to her she considered that disgusting and pitiful. Furthermore, when she started running with rebellious groups such as a young man named Raymond who always had an open discussion about how the African Americans were being mistreated and most time the African American community did not want to speak their mind because they would risk losing their jobs if their boss found them talking about their mistreatment. Also, the other trouble maker was Nixon because e openly told his boss that he attended a NAACP meeting which was not a good idea because he would get fired. Though he knew this, he had a plan he stated to his boss “Anybody mess with my job, I am gonna drag them into court” (Theoharis 19) though he was bluffing this impressed Rosa. Her rebellious act continued when she joined the National Association Advancement for Colored people also known as the NAACP which was a community group that helped the African American community to find their voices in that they had lawyers who were representing African Americans who were charged for breaking the law such as those who refused to give up their seats to a “white” person, those who were charged with public indecency this was indicated when an African American who was a marine came back from war and was drunk, so he deiced to run down the street and he was chard with public indecency.
Some of the lawyers who took these cases were usually from the NAACP and one of them was Fred Gary who worked on numerous cases such the Rosa Parks case of refusing to give up her seat and Broder vs Gayle where they were their case went all the way to the supreme court because they wanted the treatment of American on
busses. The most rebellious thin she ever did was refusing to give up her seat for a white woman. When it came to the treatment of African Americans in busses, some of the rules were if African Americans had to pay their bus fare and walk to the back to find an empty seat, then if the busses were filled, then they should give up their seats it did not matter if the seat was in the back, bus drivers did not want to see a “white” person standing. Also, those who refused to give up their seats were usually dragged out of the bus or beaten. One of moments that inspired Rosa Parks not to give up her seat was Claudette Colvin a teenager who refused to give up her seat and this lead up to her being beaten and being dragged out of the buss which cause Rosa Parks to wonder why other African Americans did not say something when it came to her rescue. When asked by Esquire magazine, about how she felt about Colvin’s case her reply was “she did not think that it was fair for her to give up her seat for a man”. I do agree with her especially she was a teenager who was coming back from school and the bus driver could have worked with her and did not have to curse at her or he could have come to her rescue when the police officer started beating up on her. So, with this kind of treatment anyone would indeed be feed up by the treatment since they African Americans are most of the people who use public transportation.