Kaelyn Boyer
CP American History
Mr. Elders
28 April 2023
Rosa Parks and the Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white passenger violating segregation laws. She was then arrested, taken to jail, and fined which led to several civil rights leaders organizing bus boycotts. Rosa Parks is widely known as the mother of the American civil rights movement. Her refusal to give up her bus seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus in 1955, was the beginning of the Montgomery Bus Boycott which lasted for over a year. The boycott was a critical moment in the civil rights movement and eventually resulted in the desegregation of Montgomery’s public transportation.
Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. She grew up in a family that strongly valued education and attended a segregated school in Montgomery. Despite the discrimination against African Americans during this era, Rosa Parks received a fairly good education. Due to family illness, Parks was forced to drop out of Booker T. Washington High School. In 1932, Rosa Parks
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During this time, Parks was working at a Montgomery department store as a seamstress. After a long day of working, she took a seat in the back of the bus, the designated section for colored people, on a public Montgomery bus. As the front of the bus, the section for white people, began to fill up, the bus driver ordered several black passengers, including Parks, to move so white passengers could sit down. At the time, a law in Montgomery stated that African Americans were required to give up their seats to white passengers if the front of the bus was full. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to the white passenger. The bus driver then called the police who arrested Parks for disorderly conduct and fined her $10. This sparked outrage within the African American community which would lead to the Montgomery Bus Boycott