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Rosa Parks
"My message to the world is that we must come together and live as one."
Rosa Parks is the woman known as the "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement." She earned this nickname after standing up to the racial and social injustices that were still taking place due to Jim Crow legislation in the south during the 1950s. Jim Crow made sure that schools, parks, playgrounds, restaurants, hotels, public transportation, theaters, restrooms, drinking fountains, and so on were all segregated, or racially separated. This meant that African Americans could only use facilities that were labeled "Colored Only." Parks grew up living with and taking care of her little brother, divorced mother, and elderly grandparents in Pine Level, Alabama. While living with her grandparents she attended the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls, Booker T. Washington High School, and Alabama State Teacher's College for Negroes for the tenth and eleventh grade, which were all-black schools. In exchange for tuition at the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls, she cleaned two of the classrooms. She had little time to play because when she was home from school she spent her time caring for her ill mother and grandparents. While she cared for them, her grandmother told her stories about slavery and segregation. Her mother also talked to her about the injustices that were taking place. She reminded Rosa every day that all of God's children were free. Due to her mother's illness, she was unable to graduate from high school. Eventually, due to her grandmother's death, she was unable to graduate with her class at Alabama State Teacher's College for Negroes. Through her own experiences, by listening to her grandmother's stories, and by attending the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls, she quickly began to understand how wrong the racial and social injustices were. In 1932, she married Raymond Parks, a man who was also interested in standing up to racial injustices and inequalities. Their interests and experiences created a bond between them. In 1934, she had gone back to school and received her high school diploma. In 1943 she became one of the first female members and the secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). As a part of the NAACP she continued to silently protest against segregation by avoiding segregated drinking fountains, "Colored Only" elevators, and many other reminders of racial injustice.
On the historical day of December
1, 1955, Rosa Parks was tired and on her way home from a long day at work.
With a bag of groceries in her arms, she boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus.
Soon the "White Section" of the bus filled up and a white man boarded the
bus and looked around for a seat. Due to Montgomery segregation laws, the
bus drivers were to designate the front part of the bus for whites and
the rear section for blacks, therefore creating an imaginary color line.
However, they were not supposed to move the color line to the back of the
bus and take seats away from blacks. Noticing the white man, the bus driver
then yelled at four blacks, including Parks, to get up and move to the
back of the bus. All of them but Parks obeyed. She was not only tired from
work, but also, remembering her grandmother's stories, she knew that she
was tired of being treated like a second class citizen. When she refused,
the bus driver called the police. By around six o'clock, she was arrested
and taken to jail. Since Parks was well respected by everyone in her community,
her arrest sparked what is known today as the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Parks
was found guilty at her trial in Montgomery, but it was appealed to the
lower court. Parks's dream came true on June 2, 1956, when the lower court
declared segregated seating on buses unconstitutional. This was followed
by what proved to be one of the most important days in our history. On
December 20, 1956, over one year after Parks had faught for what she believed
in, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court order that Montgomery buses
must be integrated. By this time the boycott had spread to many other cities.
Although it was expected to last only one day, due to strong community
support, it had lasted three hundred and eighty-one days. The bus company
had suffered a serious financial loss, but blacks had made a miraculous
gain. Parks's refusal to give up her seat on the bus marked a beginning
for the civil rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s.
Rosa Parks has without a doubt been an inspiration and a leader to all of us. She sacrificed herself in order to make her hopes for the future become the realities of today. She took the wisdom that she had gained from her grandmother's stories to make a change for the good of others. This teaches us to hold on to and learn from the stories that our grandparents have told us. Above all, Rosa Parks's accomplishments teach us that it is possible to make our dreams, no matter how unlikely they may seem, become a reality. By: Bree Z Jensvold
Further Reading: Rosa Parks: The Movement Organizes by Kai Friese
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