Rosa Parks

One of the most infulential and inspirational women of all time was Rosa Parks. By one action she helped change the lives of a majority ofAfrican Americans and more importantly society as a whole. Rosa Parks sparked the attention of America when she refused to settle for the black (lower class)standards. Not only did she help change the lives for many African Americans but she helped equality for all men and women in the United States. By one brave women our world will be forever thankful.

Rosa Parks was raised in her Grandparents hosue in pine LEvel, Montgomery County, in Alabama. Her Mother's name was Leona Edwards and her father James McCauley was a carpenter. On February 4, 1913 Rosa was born, ya year after her parents were married. At around the age of two her father took off North looking for a better like. As a child Rosa and her brother grew up with segregation and such societies as the Ku Klux Klan. Her grandfather would often sleep with

a rifle by his side due to the unsafe environment. By the time Rosa Parks went to school she began to feel unhappy about the society she was living in. She soon noticed the segregation of their society when she saw the empty and little school for blacks compared to the

glamorous and bih school the whites had. At that point on in Rosa's life she decided she was going to be a person with dignity and self-respect. She promised herself she would never set her dreams lower than anyone else in the world simply because she was black. She wanted a change and was determined to make it happen. At age nineteen Rosa married a man named Raymond Park, who died of cancer in 1977 after a close fifty years of marraige. When Raymond was living he ha dalways influenced her to become more active in civil rights among blacks. Her hopes for abetter future were just begining.

By 1945 Rosa was a leader in the Montgomery Voters League and the secretary of the NAtionals Association for the Advacement of Colored People(NAACP). One evening in early December 1955 Rosa was sitting inthe front seat of the colored section of the bus on her way home. It was like almost every day all the blacks would sit in the white section of the bus and as ssoon as thewhites filled in the blacks would routinely move to the back. In an instance Rosa found her chance of freedom. Somehow she had changed the laws. She was tired of being pushed around. She knew in her heart she was a regular person just like everyone else and she wanted everyone else to know it too. The whites quickly pilled on the bus and all the blacks pilled in the back.. Ms. Parks on the other hand didn't move. Quickly the driver threatened to arrest her. As the driver began to get angry Rosa calmly with all the confidence inthe worl just sat. Rosa Parks got arrested that day for every black in the nation. She wanted to prove to all people that she would be treated as anyone else inthe community.

Little did Rosa know that a simple act of courage would change the course of American history. That day she was arrested for violating Montgomery's transportation laws and took her to jail. She was soon released on a one-hundred dollar bail. A trial was scheduled for December 5, 1955. Her arrest brought a protest of seven thousand blacks in her community. Her community was small but every African American member of her town was sure to be protesting for her release that day. This protest rapidly started the creation of the Montgomery Improvement Association. The most involved and determined person besides Parks in this movement was Martain Luther King Jr. would call for a one-day bus boycott which ended up extending after Rosa was found guilty. Rosa was fined ten dollars. Rosa once again refused to pay any money and appealed her case. Rosa Parks and her husband both lost their jobs and were harassed and ridiculed for what happened

on the bus. Most whites would say she made a fool out of herself and she embarrassed the black commmunity. Finally in 1956, the United States District Court system delcared that the segregated buses were unconstitutional and unethical. The supreme Court upheld