My Soul Is Rested Summary

The Civil Rights Movement is often thought to begin with a tired Rosa Parks defiantly declining to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She paid the price by going to jail. Her refusal sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which civil rights historians have in the past credited with beginning the modern civil rights movement. Others credit the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education with beginning the movement. Regardless of the event used as the starting point of the moment, everyone can agree that it is an important period in history. In the forty-five years since the modern civil rights movement, several historians have made significant contributions to the study of this era. These historians

“My Soul is Rested” by Howell Raines was definitely an interesting book to read because Howell Raines obtained different points of views on the reality of society from the years 1956 to 1968. Howell Raines shed light on those who endured such turmoil and violence in this epic battle towards justice. With such courage and faith many great leaders and groups pushed to obtain justice which took years as this book brings to light important events that helped push for equality. The book outlines a chronology of the civil right movement in the deep south between the years 1955-1986 from the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1957), the student sit-ins (February 1960-October 1960), the freedom rides (1961-1962), the Birmingham demonstrations (April 1963- September 1963), freedom summer (June 1964- December 1964), and finally the Selma March (1965-1968). The book began with the Rosa L. Parks arrest in Montgomery, Alabama which is what encouraged the issues of constitutional racism to fully take off with social movements amongst various organizations in the deep south. The Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1956 was the first of many that the book emphasis on as well as the death of one of the greatest civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was the last event. The impact of the lesser known leaders and followers both black and white fought by participating in many events like sit-ins, freedom rides, voter drives and campaigns as the book “My Soul is Rested” mentions. Each person telling their story about the events that happened from the eyes of a black as well as a white man through the eyes of a black women and white the stories are told with such power in every word. A few names that helped change the course of the United States laws where E.D. Nixon who started the movement by starting the Montgomery Bus Boycott unfolding the events that began to take speed causing more leaders to step up as the law began to pay attention. The civil right movement beginning with Rosa L. Parks and ending with the death of Martin Luther King Jr. forever marking history with the help of a many great leader that arose from being afraid to speaking up and fighting the social and political norm.

Rosa Parks: My Story is an autobiography. Parks tells about her vital role in the struggle for equality. In detail this book explains how the civil rights movements started. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a segregated bus, beginning the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott.

The evening of December 1, 1955, one single woman changed the lives of many people and the way that they would continue to live. Rosa Parks exhibited one woman's courage and strength to stand up for what she believed in. Mrs. Parks's decision to remain seated and go against the "Believed way" sparked the beginning of the American Civil Rights Movement. In this paper I will discuss Rosa Parks's background, her decision against standing up, and how she started the beginning of the American Civil Rights Movement.

Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks were inspirational leaders that contributed greatly towards the civil rights movement. With racial discrimination surrounding King and Park, growing up as an African American made it hard and colored people were unfairly treated. Both King and Park knew the inequalities and sought education to aid themselves in their unfair life. Despite this, Park and King were brought up responsibly by their parents, King was an active civil rights activist, participating in the ‘Montgomery Bus Boycott’, ‘March on Washington’ and lead the ‘Selma to Montgomery march’. Rosa Parks was an influential figure contributing to the civil rights movement as she was the chosen ‘test case’ the NCAACP were looking for.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, one of the leaders of the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP] refused to give up her seat to a white person on a segregated city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, despite being reprimanded by the driver (Schulke 166). Montgomery, Alabama was known for its terrible treatment of blacks. The buses in particular had been a source of tension between the city and black citizens for many years (Schulke, 167). As a result of refusing to give up her seat, Rosa Parks was arrested. Rosa Parks' popularity among the black community, proved to be the spark that ignited the non-violent Civil Rights Movement (Norrell 2).

On Thursday evening December 1, 1955, Rosa boards a Montgomery City Bus to go home after a long day working as a seamstress. She walks back to the section for blacks, and takes a seat. The law stated that they could sit there if no White people were standing. Rosa parks never liked segregation rules and has been fighting against them for more than ten years in the NAACP, but until then had never broke any of the unjust rules. As the bus stops at more places, more white people enter the bus, all the seats in the “White Only” section was filled and the bus driver orders Rosa’s row to move to the back of the bus, they all moved, accept Rosa. She was arrested and fined for violating a city regulation. This act of defiance began a movement that ended legal Segregation in America, and made her an inspiration to freedom devoted people everywhere.

A growing amount of American people began to speak out about inequality and injustice during the 1950’s and the Rosa Parks bus incident is a perfect example. On December 1, 1955, a 42 year old African American woman who worked as a seamstress

The Civil Rights movement began in the middle of the 50s throughout the 60s. Activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks used their messages to change segregation in the US to gain the equality African Americans worked hard for. Martin Luther King Jr. was a famous spokesperson in the movement that became a voice for future generations of African Americans. His most famous speech was I Have A Dream, which addressed racism and called for economic and civil rights. Rosa Parks was an activist in the Civil Rights Movement who used her determination to push forward for change. In December, 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white man because she was sitting in the back of the bus, which was a blacks only section. The man had no place to sit as the bus was full in the whites only section so he resorted to going to the back where the African Americans had to sit. Since Rosa refused to give up her sit she was arrested and fined. These activists used the issues conveyed in the famous literary works to promote change and act on it. These actions eventually brought on the change African Americans in the US were searching for and thus was born the Civil Rights of 1964. This act stated that it was illegal to separate people based on race, color or national origin in the

I surely do not know the author’s thesis on civil rights, I just understand that he knows Rosa Park's thesis and view on civil rights and how she contributed to creating them. The author tells the reader how Rosa Parks was always modest about her role in the civil rights movement, giving credit to a higher power for her decision not to give up her seat. the author ends with Rosa Park quoting, “I was fortunate God provided me with the strength needed at the precise time conditions were ripe for change. I am thankful to him every day that he gave me the strength not to move.” An article in the New York Times explains that: For Rosa Parks, her decision not to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery Alabama, bus on Dec. 1, 1955 wasn't the first time the seamstress had chosen not to give in. They also explain how Parks had been an active member of the local NAACP chapter since 1943 and how they had marched on behalf of the Scottsboro boys, who were arrested in Alabama in 1931 for raping two white women. It goes on to say with a simple act of refusal, a move which landed Parks in prison, a motion like the Montgomery Bus Boycott who set off to start the Civil Rights Movement. They end the article by saying when the bulldogs and water hoses were unleashed a decade later, in the streets of

We've all heard of the freedom fighter Rosa Parks. She was a well-known activist who began the Montgomery bus boycott of the 60s. In “How History Got the Rosa Parks Story Wrong,” as reported in Washington Post 2015, Jeanne Theoharis builds an argument that although Rosa Parks was seen as a quiet symbol of civil rights progress, her contributions to the fight for racial equality reveal a life-long commitment. Theoharis utilizes Park’s character with supporting evidence, and compelling word choices to strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of her argument.

Through out grade school we as the general public are presented with an extremely small amount of information on the Civil Rights Movement, that of a sample size to give us a general idea of what truly went on through out the country and the Deep South. Our foundation on the education of this historical moment is based on are these big names such as Martin Luther King Jr. or Rosa Parks, who are not only known country wide but world wide. There are hundreds, thousands, and quite possibly millions of civil rights activists who are lesser know or even known at all. In Howell Raines novel My Soul Is Rested: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement in the Deep South, Raines expressed the oral history of these lesser-known individuals and their

The Civil Rights Movement in the Deep South is one that is well known and familiar to us all. We all know of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the charismatic preacher who was undisputedly the leader of the civil rights movement in the South. We have all also heard of Rosa Parks, the black woman who would not give up her seat in the bus and was thus arrested for it, she was the catalyst that sparked the civil rights movement. They were the famous people often mentioned in the Civil Rights Movement. However, they were not the only people engaged in the Civil Rights Movement, there were many more, and their stories are just as important as that of Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. That reason

They struggled for equality and took part in some of the greatest civil rights movements ever known. Although the civil rights revolution came as a surprise, the causes fought for were necessary. According to Foner, “the United States in the 1950s was still a segregated, unequal society with half of the nation’s black families living in poverty.” (902) Many whites paid little attention to segregation because they felt it had no impact on their everyday lives. Segregation impacted blacks, especially in the South, on a daily basis. They had separate restrooms, drinking fountains, schools, entrances to public places, and were unable to enter many public institutions altogether. (902) The arrest of Rosa Parks sparked a year-long bus boycott and marked the beginning of the civil rights movement in the South. (904) With Martin Luther King Jr. leading the movement, the freedom of justice and equality finally seemed within reach. According to the text, “King was a master of appealing to the deep sense of injustice among blacks and to the conscience of white America. He presented the case for black rights in a vocabulary that emerged the black experience with that of the nation.” (906)

The civil rights movement began in the 1950’s when African-Americans basic rights were long denied to them (PBS.org, 2015). This inspired the African American culture and other discriminated groups to fight for their own rights. One of the first acts was when a woman name Rosa Parks did not want to give up her seat to a Caucasian man. She was wrongfully put in jail because of the incident. She was not the first person to do this, but because she was close friends with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. which was one of the leaders of the civil rights movement, she received a lot of publicity and media play. This incident shows that she was a victim of discrimination. She was belittled by people because she would not give up her seat which, in that time was the law. The laws in the past did not protect the minority but the majority which was the Caucasians. Later in the civil rights movement, people marched protested and did everything possible to get some result from the discrimination in America at that time. People were also killed, arrested, slandered, and abused because all they wanted was their rights not to be discriminated against. After all of fighting for civil rights, the laws finally changed and things were getting better. Although things were getting better, in the present time things has turned around for the