The Civil Rights Movement: A Brief Story Of Rosa Parks

One of the most influential and inspirational women of all time was Rosa Parks. By one action she helped change the lives of a majority of African Americans and more importantly society as a whole. Rosa Parks sparked the attention of America when she refused to settle for the black (lower class)standards. Not only did she help change the lives for many African Americans but she helped equality for all men and women in the United States. By one brave women our world will be forever thankful.

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.

On December 1st, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus. In 1943, Parks had paid her fare to a bus driver who told her to get on the bus by its rear door as ‘black’ seats were always in the back, as she moved to the rear door, the bus drove off.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat to a white person. Rosa Parks is quoted as saying, "I thought about Emmett Till, and I could not go back. My legs and feet were not hurting, that is a stereotype. I paid the same fare as others, and I felt violated." Her act of civil disobedience led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the emergence of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as a powerful leader in the fight for civil rights, all powerful symbols of the civil rights movement. (Crowe, n.d.)

Would you have ever thought that disobeying against the law would make the world a better place? Back in the 1920’s and early 1960’s, African Americans had to go to separate schools then that of white people. Blacks had separate water fountains, seats on the bus, and were treated as second class citizens. Those who weren’t white suffered the consequences of a matter they couldn’t control; however, they fought back with civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is fighting against the laws in a respectful and peaceful manner (Suber). This form of action was used to speak up for a community who was suffering and only wanted to live as everyone else. Civil disobedience is a protest that says “we only want peace”.

In December of 1955, Rosa Parks sat in the front of the bus and refused to give up her seat to a white male. She was later arrested and put in jail. This caused the black people of Montgomery to initiate a boycott, the refusal to use the services of the bus company. They did this in order to gain

Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat at the ‘colored section’ inside the bus to a white passenger, and this went against the customs at the time. As a result of the arrest, Montgomery black community initiated a bus boycott that lasted for more than a year.

1943 Rosa Parks' bus ride - Rosa Parks bravely refused to give up her seat to a white man and is ejected from a racially segregated bus. She becomes secretary of the Montgomery NAACP.

On March 2, 1955 a 15 year old girl, Claudette Colvin, refused to give up her seat on the Montgomery City Bus to a white man and in violation of city law she was arrested and taken to jail. Later that year in December Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus to go home after a long day of work. Sitting in the first row of the colored section the bus slowly filled up with passengers.

Just over a year later Southeast of Kansas on December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, boarded a segregated bus and took her seat in the front of the colored section. When a white passenger boarded the bus and the whites-only section was full Rosa was ordered to give up her seat; she refused. When she was arrested the community became uneasy. This event sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the two events became the foundation of the Civil Rights Movement.

On December 1, 1955 a black seamstress, after a long and exhausting day at work, got onto a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama and sat in the back where the blacks were portioned off. A few stops following, a flock of white people boarded. They seized all the remaining seats in the front, except for one white man who was forced to stand as the seats were filled up. The bus driver ordered the four black people in the rear end of the bus to give up their seats to the white man.Three of the four stood up hesitantly. Rosa Parks, the work-weary black seamstress did not. She was arrested later that evening. She was angry at the hate and disrespect towards blacks and minorities. She had enough of the way the world has treated them and she knew that

One night, a now famous woman, Rosa Parks, had enough and and claimed her seat in the front of the bus, where only whites were allowed to sit, and refused to move. Parks became under physical and verbal attack by white citizens, and policemen, before she was arrested and fined.

“The only tired I was, was tired of giving in” (Parks). I was tired, tired of being oppressed, and tired of being stepped on by the law, and my fellow people. That was the only tired i felt. The Montgomery Bus protest sparked a fire that would be felt throughout the entire country, and it was the spark that ignited the fire of the civil rights movement that shook the world. The boycott was the first of it, once light was shown on the problem, she began travelling cross country spreading information about civil rights, and sparking more peaceful protest. Rosa Parks was an important figure that changed the direction of the United States of America. She was trying to get home from work that day, but she turned into an icon for the civil rights movement, and shined a light on the unfair treatment of african americans.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks made history in her hometown of Montgomery, Alabama (Baggett, 2016). Alabama, amongst many other southern states, enforced segregation in public places. Rosa Parks boarded a bus after a long day of work at the local department store and paid the white bus driver her regular fare. The bus was full, as it normally was at this time of day, and Rosa took her seat at the front of the black section of the bus (Sanders, 2006, p. 3). Black passengers were advised to yield to white passengers if the front half of the white section was full. The bus driver began to drive and eventually made another stop at the next station. White passengers began to board the bus and took all the remaining white seats at the front of the bus; however, there was one man left standing. The bus driver asked Rosa and the other passengers beside her to vacate