On the first of December in 1955, history was made. While she did not realize that she was in the making of a great moment in history, Rosa Parks, a kind-hearted, middle-aged seamstress refused to give up her seat on a bus ride home in Montgomery, Alabama, simply because of the color of her skin, thus, setting in motion the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Therefore, being arrested for act of civil disobedience. If I were to teach a fourth grade class about the most important person in African American History, I would give them a brief lesson of her life after and prior to the incident in 1955. I would note them about her historical and political influences and her social and family influences.
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.
Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement of the 1956 initiated by Rosa Park, a middle age black woman, who had worked all day cleaning white people homes for a living. On a particular evening Rosa had worked all day and walked to the bus stop to catch the bus. Upon getting on the bus and sitting down and resting her tired feet, the white bus drive asked Rosa to get up and go to the back of the bus and let a white man sit down. Rosa had followed all of the Jim Crow laws that perceived blacks as second class citizens; but this day she decided to refuse since she was so tired physically and emotional to being treated different, that she refused to move. This refusal was against the law and a policeman came to arrest her (Pearson Education Inc. 2007).
Southern blacks simply stopped using the bus system to show that they weren't going to be treated unfairly, by the community, government and bus system. Every week the black community would gather and have a meeting about the protest, the leader of these gatherings would emerge to be Martin L. King who took charge of the boycott with the influential backing of the church. After over a year of boycotting the busses they went to the Supreme Court to prove that it was not legal to segregate blacks from whites on public transportation. Eventually, the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to separate people based on their race. When the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the blacks, they knew it was going to change their way of life.
She later made her living as a seamstress. On February 4, 1913, Rosa Parks instigated the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott of 1955 to 1956. She did this by refusing to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger as required by law. Although secretary of the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored people, Rosa Parks acted alone. Her defiance and the successful boycott cost her livelihood until she moved to Detroit in 1957.
On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama one of America’s most famous protests went down in history. After a long day of work, rosa parks refusing to give up her seat in the front if the bus eventually lead to a Bus boycott, leading her into becoming an activist. She started out with an indivisual protest that led to a large social protest and a Supreme Court case. The small protest led to a change in American life. The Rosa Park’s protest in Montgomery Alabama was on of the most important event of the Civil Rights Movement because it was one of the first victories for African-Americans in the movement, it changed the everyday lives of both African-American and White-American people, it helped Martin Luther King Jr. become one of the movements
Imagine, in this day and age being forced to give up your seat on a bus just because of your ethnicity. In 1955, that very thing happened to a black woman named Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks was born on April 2nd, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. She married a barber, Raymond Parks, in 1923. Her husband was very involved in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Mrs.
These organizations were actually peaceful and nonviolent organization protesting racial inequality. Their nonviolent and peaceful approaches were the strategies that they used during the Civil Right Movement. The NAACP’s legal victories were the most successful in overturning the South’s systems of Jim Crow Laws, but the SCLC and SNCC received more media recognition. Martin Luther King Jr’s, (founder of SCLC) , goal was to coordinate peaceful protests in response to the Jim Crow Laws and the Montgomery Bus Boycott that had taken place in 1955. He had hoped that he could gather a momentum that would extend the support of black churches because black churches played a central role in the Civil Rights Movement.
Parks helped blacks pass tests that had been set up to make it difficult for them to pass. Rosa Parks was a major factor in the fight for equal rights. She had enough courage not to give up her seat that day in 1955 on the city bus to a white person, who she felt was no better than she, when seen through the eyes of those on the right track. Ms.Parks also helped start a boycott that kept blacks off city buses for a year. That boycott took part in the fight to equal rights.
African Americans were finally able to obtain more opportunities. For example, many were able to get a college education, and were able to own a house for the first time. This was a huge step in improving the treatment of minorities in America. Opportunities also sprang up for many American women. Before the war, women were treated awfully, and were not allowed to work or make a living for themselves and their families.