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Rosa Parks protest stimulated a growing movement to desegregate public transportation and marked a historic turning point in the African American battle for civil rights



At the end of the reconstruction era, African Americans were considered second-class citizens both economically and politically. Jim Crow laws and black codes prevented Blacks from obtaining their rights as citizens. It was not until the 1950’s and 1960’s that blacks began to fight for equal opportunities. One individual who was one of the first to start the civil rights movement was an African American woman from Montgomery, Alabama. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks boarded a bus after a long day of work. Rosa sat in a row of seats just beyond the section of a bus that was designated for whites only. When a white man boarded the bus and was unable to locate an empty seat, the bus driver told Parks and the others seated by her to give up their seats for him. Rosa refused. Despite the adversity in Rosa’s refusal, she continued to fight for what

she believed in. In Quiet Strength, (Zondervan Publishing House, 1994) a book later written by Rosa Parks, she explains, "Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it. I kept thinking about my mother and my grandparents, and how strong they were. I knew there was a possibility of being mistreated, but an opportunity was being given to me to do what I had asked of others." Her protest stimulated a growing movement to desegregate public transportation and marked a historic turning point in the African American battle for civil rights.

After Rosa parks arrest, African Americans wanted to continue the civil rights movement that Rosa established. Blacks through out the entire town of Montgomery attended a meeting at which they decided to boycott the use of buses as transportation. As a result, the bus company lost much of their business because blacks made up the...