On 1 December 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Alabama for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. Discover how her act of defiance sparked the US civil rights movement. 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 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 Ironically, Rosa Parks took a stand by sitting down. On December 1, 1955, the 42-year-old seamstress was commuting home from her job at Montgomery Fair department store on the Cleveland Avenue bus Rosa Parks sits in the front of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, after the Supreme Court ruled segregation illegal on the city bus system on December 21st, 1956. Parks was arrested on December 1 Today marks the anniversary of Rosa Parks’ decision to sit down for her rights on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus, putting the effort to end segregation on a fast track. Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955, after she refused to give up her seat on a crowded bus to a white passenger. Rosa Parks is fingerprinted by police. Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty images “People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true,” Parks said in her 1992 book, Rosa Parks: My Story. “I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. Six decades ago, Rosa Parks, then 42, uttered perhaps the most famous “No” in American history and helped launch the modern civil rights movement — a struggle that many say continues today. In Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks is jailed for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man, a violation of the city’s racial segregation laws. After Rosa Parks left work at the Montgomery Fair department store on Thursday, December 1, 1955, she boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus at Court Square to go home. At the time, she was thinking about a workshop she was helping organize and thus she was a bit distracted as she took a seat on the bus, which turned out to be in the row right behind When Rosa passed away on October 24, 2005, at the age of 92, people around the world mourned her loss. Her body lay in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, an honor reserved for only a few great Americans. Why Rosa Parks Matters. Rosa Parks’ story is a reminder that courage doesn’t always come with loud speeches or grand gestures. In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, causing the Montgomery bus boycott. For 381 days, the black community used black-operated cabs, causing financial damage to 5. Rosa Parks was the first black woman to exercise civil disobedience on a Montgomery bus. Nearly nine months before Rosa Parks’s famous arrest, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was arrested on a Montgomery bus for refusing to yield her seat to a white passenger. She refused to move, began yelling about her constitutional rights, and had to be The common misunderstanding of the event is that Rosa Parks sat in an open white seat and refused to move to the back of the bus when ordered to by the bus driver. This is not was occurred. Rosa Parks WAS in the back of the bus in the "colored section," already. On Dec. 1, 1955, after working all day as an assistant tailor at a Montgomery, Ala., department store, a 42-year-old woman named Rosa Parks got on the Cleveland Avenue bus, sat down and was told Introduction. On December 1, 1955, a tired Rosa Parks left work as a department store tailor’s assistant and planned to ride home on a city bus. Rosa Parks' Bus . In 1955, African Americans were still required by a Montgomery, Alabama, city ordinance to sit in the back half of city buses and to yield their seats to white riders if the 7. “People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” Rosa Parks wasn’t simply physically tired; she was exhausted by systemic inequality. This clarifies that her act was one of protest, not convenience. After 1956, Rosa Parks could sit wherever she wanted on the bus Image: UIG/IMAGO The experience also shaped King, who became the chairman of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a civil 4. “Stand for something or you will fall for anything. Today’s mighty oak is yesterday’s nut that held its ground.” ~ (Rosa Parks). 5. “There is no future without education.” ~ (Rosa Parks). 6. “To bring about change, you must not be afraid to take the first step. We will fail when we fail to try.” ~ (Rosa Parks). 7.
Articles and news, personal stories, interviews with experts.
Photos from events, contest for the best costume, videos from master classes.