preview

Rosa Parks Essay

Decent Essays

You May Do That 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.

Racism had tainted her life from the very beginning. During her childhood she attended a one-room school for blacks only. She was only allowed to attend school for a short time due to the ailing health of …show more content…

Together, they had the power to overthrow statutory racial oppression and to change a nation (The Immovable Rosa Parks).

Mrs. Parks entered the bus, paid her fare, and took a seat in the middle section of the bus. The back of the bus was deemed the "colored section", the front was considered the "white section", and the middle section was for either race, however if a white person needed a seat, the black person was expected to give up their seat immediately. The bus made three stops a white man entered the bus and needed a seat, the three other black got out of their seat immediately, but when the driver ordered Rosa to get up she firmly stated "no", Mrs. Parks once stated that "people always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired of giving in." According to "Rosa Parks", Mrs. Parks had meant to do no more than show one rude bus driver that blacks were being treated unfairly. She wasn't the first black to ever refuse to give up her seat, but her action had consequences. After she refused to give up her seat on the bus, the driver threatened to have her arrested, Mrs. Parks simply stated, "You may do that." The policemen clearly didn't want to arrest her, but law forced them to.

In the words of biographer Douglas Brinkley "Rosa's refusal to back down made her ‘the spiritual essence' of the civil rights movement." Her decision showed that

Get Access