In this essay, the life and achievements of Civil Rights Activist Rosa Parks will be discussed. Rosa McCauley Parks is known today as the “mother of the civil rights movement” because her arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat sparked the pivotal Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott. (Hare, 2008)
Early Life and Education
Born Rosa Louise McCauley on February 4th, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama, Rosa was subject to racial discrimination from an early age. Throughout her life, she had been sent to segregated schools. In 1929 she left school to go and care for her sick grandmother and mother, she never returned to education and got a job at a shirt factory. At the age of 19, she met her husband Raymond Parks a barber and an active member of the National …show more content…
However, the Negros were made get on the front of the bus pay their fair and then get off and return to the back.
On Thursday the 1st of December 1955, Rosa was on her way home from work at the Montgomery Fair department store by bus. Many black people tried to avoid travelling by bus because of the City code of them having to sit at the back of the bus. However, over 70% of the people travelling on the bus on a daily basis were coloured as most of them had to take the public transport mode as it was the only main mode of transport. (Staff, 2009)
Rosa and 3 other Negros were asked to move further back on the bus as there was not enough room on the bus so the white people had to sit where the black people would usually sit. While the other 3 agreed to move to the back Rosa refused to do so. When bus driver James Blake asked her to move for the second time she refused yet again “Well, I’m going to have you arrested” he told her. “You may do that” Parks replied. Parks admitted that it was not her intention to get arrested that day and if she had of paid more attention to the bus driver she would not have gotten off the bus as Blake had previously thrown her off the bus in 1943. (Boyd, …show more content…
The organisation runs bus tours introduces young people to important civil rights and Underground Railroad sites. In 1992 Rosa wrote her very first auto biography “Rosa Parks: My story” recounting her life in the segregated south. In 1995, she also published “Quiet Strengths” where she talked about her memoirs and focuses on religion that helped her through her life. In 1999 she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal the highest honour the United States bestows on a civilian. (History,
Early Life and Education
Born Rosa Louise McCauley on February 4th, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama, Rosa was subject to racial discrimination from an early age. Throughout her life, she had been sent to segregated schools. In 1929 she left school to go and care for her sick grandmother and mother, she never returned to education and got a job at a shirt factory. At the age of 19, she met her husband Raymond Parks a barber and an active member of the National …show more content…
However, the Negros were made get on the front of the bus pay their fair and then get off and return to the back.
On Thursday the 1st of December 1955, Rosa was on her way home from work at the Montgomery Fair department store by bus. Many black people tried to avoid travelling by bus because of the City code of them having to sit at the back of the bus. However, over 70% of the people travelling on the bus on a daily basis were coloured as most of them had to take the public transport mode as it was the only main mode of transport. (Staff, 2009)
Rosa and 3 other Negros were asked to move further back on the bus as there was not enough room on the bus so the white people had to sit where the black people would usually sit. While the other 3 agreed to move to the back Rosa refused to do so. When bus driver James Blake asked her to move for the second time she refused yet again “Well, I’m going to have you arrested” he told her. “You may do that” Parks replied. Parks admitted that it was not her intention to get arrested that day and if she had of paid more attention to the bus driver she would not have gotten off the bus as Blake had previously thrown her off the bus in 1943. (Boyd, …show more content…
The organisation runs bus tours introduces young people to important civil rights and Underground Railroad sites. In 1992 Rosa wrote her very first auto biography “Rosa Parks: My story” recounting her life in the segregated south. In 1995, she also published “Quiet Strengths” where she talked about her memoirs and focuses on religion that helped her through her life. In 1999 she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal the highest honour the United States bestows on a civilian. (History,