Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks

The Mother of Civil Rights Movement.

Brave, empowering, and an inspiration to all, are three things that describes Rosa Parks. Many people know that Rosa Parks did not give up her seat on a bus, but she was beyond worth more. As a well known as a civil rights activist, Rosa Parks showed Americans that they should all have equal rights. She left a lasting legacy as the mother of modern-day civil rights movement. The origin of Rosa Parks needed for change started when segregation was taking place in Montgomery, Alabama. Parks grew up disliking the way she had to lived. She was not allowed to go to certain restaurants and drink out of water fountains because of her skin color. Her parents raised her and her

She grew up in the South where it was the most segregated place and toughest place in America to live if you were African American (Hull #13). As Parks grew up in “Cradle of the Confederacy” she had to experience some horrible events what changed her. (Hull 13) For example, The KKK had Rosa staying up nights with her Grandpa to make sure that her family would not be killed by this violent group. Another instance is when Parks was not able to drink out of a water fountain or walk on a certain walk way as a young child because she was colored. (Greenfield 4, 6,7) Without these events, Parks would not make her decision to not give up her seat on the bus and continued forward to change America.

Throughout Parks life she could never keep the same job to have a career because jobs were hard to find moving from location to another location so instead she ended up with a legacy. Parks legacy took off when she refused twice to give up her seat to a non-colored man with James Blake, as the bus driver. (www.history.com) Rosa Parks in court talked about how the bus system was not obeying the U.S. Constitution. (Greenfield 23-25) MLK Jr. and Rosa Parks gave speeches about how nobody should ride the bus. (Garrow 171). The bus system lost $3,000 every day and the city became known as the “walking city” (Morals

Parks became a organization secretary of Montgomery Chapter from 1943 to 1956. (Garrow 171) NAACP was founded in 1909 and emerged as one of the nation’s foremost civil rights organizations. (Hull 42) When Parks joined NAACP, she helped talk to a group, most were teenagers, about the problems of their city. Then Rosa Parks joined, The Montgomery Voters League who wanted all African Americans to vote so Parks visited homes of African American families to teach them how to pass the test without one mistake to have their name on their voting list. (Greenfield 11) The bus system was still taking place and Montgomery Improvement Ass. and Churches bought cars, station wagons, if people needed a ride to far places. A year passed and anyone including African Americans were able to sit anywhere without losing their seat. (Greenfield 32) Without Rosa Park’s choice to stay on the bus, America would have never been the same today. As The Civil Rights Movement was happening, there was opposing ideas against Park’s discussions. The bus system had unfair rules to African American’s even though they didn’t deserve it. Parks had to go to back of the line after she paid and if there wasn’t any seats left, she would not receive a refund. If there was seats, any colored person, including Rosa Parks would have