A forensic document examiner was hired to see if the scrapbook was authentic. A Museum conservator went to Montgomery to personally examine the bus. Convinced that this was the Rosa Parks bus, we decided to bid on the bus in the Internet auction. The bidding began at $50,000 on October 25, 2001, and went until 2:00 AM the next morning. Inside this bus on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a soft-spoken African-American seamstress, refused to give up her seat to a white man, breaking existing segregation laws. The flawless character and quiet strength she exhibited successfully ignited action in others. For this, many believe Rosa Parks's act was the event that sparked the Civil Rights movement. The conservators' task was daunting. They had to determine if the bus, which had been rusting in an Alabama field for 30 years and was now for sale, was truly bus 2857. They had to figure out how to restore, display, and interpret the bus. They had to answer to critics who felt the bus should be exhibited in a civil rights museum in Alabama. The "smoking gun" - the page of Charles Cummings' scrapbook page with the notation "Blake/#2857," indicating the driver and number of the bus. How the bus was acquired is a more modern story. In September 2001, an article in the Wall Street Journal announced that the Rosa Parks bus would be available in an Internet auction in October. The diagram below shows where Rosa Parks sat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, on December 1, 1955. At the time, the first ten seats on Montgomery buses were reserved for white passengers only. Parks was sitting in the eleventh row. When the bus filled up the driver told Rosa Parks to surrender her seat to a white man, but she repeatedly refused. – The bus on which Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat is a symbol of her defiance that changed the course of history in America. That bus was once in ruins, but now it sits at the Henry Ford Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, a 42-year-old black woman on her way home from work, was asked by the bus driver to give up her seat to a white male passenger. Rosa Parks refused. While the immediate penalty was a $10 fine for violating a Montgomery city ordinance, this action of Rosa Parks has sub-sequently been credited with being the On Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on this bus and was arrested for violating segregation law. Her arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted for 381 days until segregation on public buses was repealed. Parks’ stance and the boycott were important events that raised awareness for the civil rights movement. Take a look in our photo gallery (photos courtesy of The Henry Ford) of the historic bus Parks took a civil rights stand in - displayed at the museum - that eventually led to a movement for 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 The actual bus on which Rosa Parks sat was made available for the public to board and sit in the seat that Rosa Parks refused to give up. [ 153 ] On February 4, 2,000 birthday wishes gathered from people throughout the United States were transformed into 200 graphics messages at a celebration held on her 100th Birthday at the Davis Theater for 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 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. Civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking the transformational Montgomery Bus Boycott. Rosa Parks is best known for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, which sparked a yearlong boycott that was a turning point in the civil rights Rosa Parks: Rosa Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1913 and grew up in Montgomery. She was married to Raymond Parks, a barber, from 1932 until his death in 1977 and both were activists for justice. By refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus, Rosa Parks is known as “the mother of the Civil Rights Movement.” Her decision sparked campaigns around the country, which eventually led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. Who was Rosa Parks and what did she do? Rosa Parks was born Rosa McCauley on February 4 Rosa Parks, the "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement" was one of the most important citizens of the 20th century. Mrs. Parks was a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama when, in December of 1955, she refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger. The bus driver had her arrested. She was tried and convicted of violating a local ordinance. Her act sparked a citywide boycott of the But some reporters from one of the publications, I think it was Look magazine came to my home and asked if I would take a little time out and go downtown with them to have my picture taken riding the bus, which I did. INTERVIEWER: WHAT DID THAT FEEL LIKE GETTING ON THAT BUS AGAIN? Rosa Parks: It didn't feel any special way.
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