Civil Rights Movement: The Influence Of Rosa Parks

In a time when people were ordered to move, she remained firm in her decision to stay. Born on February 4, 1913, Rosa Parks is most famous for her refusal to give up her seat on a bus. Experiencing segregation on a day-to-day basis, Parks was often discriminated against for being black. When she refused to give up her seat to a white man, the bus driver called the police and had Parks arrested for violating a city bus ordinance. Rosa Parks is one of the most important and influential historical figures because she sparked a civil rights movement, her actions led to desegregation, and she received numerous awards for her activism (“Parks, Rosa”). Rosa Parks is very influential because she incited the Montgomery Bus Boycott. On December 1st,

Because Parks was tried, convicted, and fined for refusing to give up her seat on a bus, the Montgomery Boycotts went on for over a year. The black community refused to use buses, and many decided to just walk everywhere to not support the bus and cab drivers. In February 1956, Park’s attorney, Fred Gray, filed a lawsuit in federal court. He claimed that Alabama’s bus segregation laws were unconstitutional, and the laws violated the US Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment (the Equal Protection Clause). On November 13th, “The Supreme Court had ruled that Alabama’s bus segregation policies were, indeed, unconstitutional” (“Montgomery Bus Boycott”). The ruling outlawed racial segregation in public transport. Parks’ refusal to give up her seat led to one of America’s biggest civil rights movements, and it also led to the desegregation of Alabama's bus laws (“Montgomery Bus Boycott,

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) created an annual award (Rosa Parks Freedom Award) in her honor. In 1983, Parks was also inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame. Then, “In February 1990, on her seventy-seventh birthday, Parks was honored at Washington's Kennedy Center by a gala event” (“Parks, Rosa”). Later in 1996, President Bill Clinton gave Parks the Medal of Freedom award. Afterward, in September 1999, she was also inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor. Parks also “Received the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal of Honor in July 1999, the highest honor a civilian can receive in the United States” (“Parks, Rosa”). Because of her activism, Parks received numerous awards and prestigious honors for her work for racial equality (“Parks,