Mrs. Parks was a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955; she refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger. She was tried and convicted of violating a local ordinance. Rosa Parks is an example of courage and determination, an inspiring symbol for all African Americans to remain free through tough adversity. She helped to make her fellow African Americans aware of the history of the Civil Rights Movement to the best of her ability.
Key Features The official start of the boycott was on December 1st 1955. Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, had refused to give up her seat to a white man on the Montgomery Bus service. Rosa Parks was an educated woman, a long-time member of the NAACP and had completed a course on “Race Relations” in the Highlander Folk School, Tennessee. She was subsequently arrested, which sparked outrage among the black community. The MIA(Montgomery Improvement Association) was formed with Martin Luther King as president.
Blake's order that she give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger after the white section was filled. Parks was not the first person to resist bus segregation. Some others had taken similar steps in the twentieth century, including Irene Morgan in 1946, Sarah Louise Keys in 1955, and the members of the Browder v. Gayle lawsuit, whom was arrested months before Parks. NAACP organizers believed that Parks was the best candidate for seeing through a court challenge after her arrest for civil disobedience in violating Alabama segregation laws though eventually her case became bogged down in the state courts. When Parks refused to give up her seat, a police officer arrested her.
Just as blacks in the south, they wanted equal rights. However, there was one major difference: there were no laws in the north pertaining to the black community. There were no political figures to fight. In the south, civil rights protestors had a battle laid out for them: they had the Jim Crow laws to deem unjust; they had the numerous bombings directed toward important black icons to protest. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s “expose the evil” tactic worked so well in the south because so much of the evil was easily spotted.
Greenshaw (2010) suggested that the arrest initiated the Montgomery bus boycott as Parks stated, "I think we ought to call a boycott." Immediately, Parks became the mother of the Civil Rights Movement. "I was just one of many who fought for freedom," she said in her book Quiet Strength (Greenhaw, 2010). Shortly after the boycott started, it was determined that Parks would be the lead plaintiff in the federal case against the Montgomery City bus company. At the time of Parks’ arrest, she was 42-years-old, and well known and well liked throughout the black community.
Seven blacks and six whites bordered that bus that day. The Freedom Riders goal wasn’t just to desegregate public transportation in the South, they wanted to spread the movement down into the Deep South and keep their fight non-violent. The first couple days of their ride were very uneventful, only a few disputes occurred at the stops. Their first significant confrontation was in Charlotte, North Carolina on May 8, when Joseph Perkins is arrested for trespassing as he attempts to have his shoes shined at a white-only shoeshine chair. They see their first violence shortly
The bus had become overfilled. The bus driver was following segregation rules and asked the blacks to move because the bus had become over crowded and a white man was entering and did not have a seat. Rosa refused to give up her seat. Rosa had stated “When I made my decision, I knew I had the strength of my ancestors with me”. She was arrested for breaking laws on segregation called “Jim Crow Laws”.
The Civil Rights Movement was trying to get equality for Black people. The Emmett Till’s case shined a bright light on to the Civil Right Movement where the NAACP and other black groups stepped in trying to get justice for this little boy. The Jim Crow laws were created for black people letting them know what they can and cannot do, where they can and cannot go, and how they can and cannot treat or react to white people. For example: “If a Black person rode in a car driven by a White person, the Black person sat in the back seat, or the back of a truck. Never suggest that a White person is from an inferior class.” And both laws were written in the story “To Kill a Mockingbird”.
His story gave many African Americans hope. All could see that he rose out of the shadows of nothing so why couldn’t they do the same? All black men, women, and children came together to overcome one thing; racism. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. were a significant peace to the puzzle because they had the power to unite people into one cause. Without these men’s ideas of non-violence retaliation the black race would not have been seen as the victim, instead the problem.
They were considered the heart of the community and they had to be respected for the fact that they brought the community to life. Being that black women have a two very strong negative aspects on their life, the party were going against the social structure