Rosa Parks (1913—2005) helped initiate the civil rights movement in the United States when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955. Her actions Rosa Parks (born February 4, 1913, Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S.—died October 24, 2005, Detroit, Michigan) was an American civil rights activist whose refusal to relinquish her seat on a public bus precipitated the 1955–56 Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama, which became the spark that ignited the civil rights movement in the United States. For 382 days, almost the entire African American population of Montgomery, Alabama, including leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, refused to ride on segregated buses. The protests “During the Montgomery bus boycott, we came together and remained unified for 381 days. It has never been done again. The Montgomery boycott became the model for human rights throughout the world.” When Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955, for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man, she was mentally prepared for the moment. With the boycott’s progress, however, came strong resistance. The Rosa Parks Story, was released in 2002. The movie won the 2003 NAACP Image Award, Christopher Award, and Black Reel Award. Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy. On the evening of December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old African American seamstress and civil rights activist living in Montgomery, Alabama, was arrested for refusing to obey a bus driver who had ordered her and three other African American passengers to vacate their seats to make room for a white passenger who had just boarded. 1956: During the boycott, Parks serves as a dispatcher to coordinate carpools. She also travels across the country to speak about the boycott. 1992: Rosa Parks: My Story, an autobiography for Rosa Parks occupies an iconic status in the civil rights movement after she refused to vacate a seat on a bus in favor of a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1955, Parks rejected a bus driver's order to leave a row of four seats in the "colored" section once the white section had filled up and move to the back of the bus. On a cold December evening in 1955, Rosa Parks quietly incited a revolution — by just sitting down. She was tired after spending the day at work as a department store seamstress. She stepped onto the bus for the ride home and sat in the fifth row — the first row of the " Colored Section ." The boycott ended the next day. Rosa Parks was among the first to ride the newly desegregated buses. Get the full story. Watch now. 10 Things You May Not Know About Rosa Parks. Discover the story of one woman's successful fight against segregation in 1950's America. Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott Rosa Parks is remembered as an ordinary woman who took a Rosa Parks (center, in dark coat and hat) rides a bus at the end of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Montgomery, Alabama, Dec. 26, 1956. Don Cravens/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images. Most of us know Rosa Parks as the African American woman who quietly, but firmly, refused to give up her bus seat to a white person Dec. 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama. That small act of Parks, Rosa. Rosa Parks: My Story. New York: Puffin Books, 1999. Theoharis, Jeanne. The Rebellious Life of Mrs.Rosa Parks. New York: Beacon Press, 2014. The boycott was a massive financial blow to the bus system, which depended heavily on black passengers. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional. Rosa’s bravery sparked a movement that changed the course of history. Rosa’s Legacy. After the boycott, Rosa continued her work for civil rights. The story of Rosa Parks stands as one of the most powerful examples of peaceful resistance in American history. Her quiet yet resolute refusal to give up her bus seat on December 1, 1955, started a movement that changed the United States forever. Based on an exhibition created by Troy University Rosa Parks Library and Museum and dedicated to the memory of Rosa Parks, 381 Days: The Montgomery Bus Boycott Story offers a gripping account of the men and women whose non-violent approach to political and social change matured into a weapon of equality for all. This exhibition toured from 2005 Montgomery bus boycott, mass protest against the bus system of Montgomery, Alabama, by civil rights activists and their supporters that led to a 1956 U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring that Montgomery’s segregation laws on buses were unconstitutional. The boycott was led by the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Rosa Parks had suffered from severe sleeplessness and developed a heart condition. This was the harsh reality of activism a story that would be repeated thousands and thousands of times as the civil rights movement swept the South. Eight months after the end of the boycott, Rosa and Raymond Parks abandoned Montgomery and moved north to Detroit. boycott and wanted to initiate the boycott in protest of Rosa Parks’s arrest. learn about her real life story. Rosa Parks received numerous awards and tributes The strength is obvious; the weakness is that the drama may give the message that the whole story (and the whole Civil Rights Movement) comes down to one moment in which Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat. It is essential that children understand what came before and after this moment. Tell students the story of the boycott. For example
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