EOTO: Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks was on her way home from work on December 1, 1955. She chose to sit down for the bus ride in the "colored section." A white man needed a place to sit since the "white" section was full. The bus driver asked Parks to move so that man would have a place to sit. Parks refused to move. After Parks sat in that seat, there were two police officers that came to the stopped bus to check out the situation and took Parks into custody for sitting in the wrong section. 

Jim Crow laws, known as black codes, made it that the African American community was “co-existing” with the white people around them. African Americans had to go to different schools, had different water fountains, and had many other restrictions. African Americans were treated as “second class citizens.” The bus that Parks was on is an example of how Jim Crow laws were put in place and were heavily enforced. 

With Parks refusing to give up her seat, it started a movement. It was decided that night that on the day of Parks’ trial, there would be a boycott started from the buses by the African American population in Montgomery. On this day, Parks was found guilty and was fined along $14 along with suspended sentence. In her autobiography, Parks wrote “People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically… No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” It was more than just a seat. It was demonstrating how unfair segregated seating was. It was showing not that she was tired from work, but that she was tired of letting those unfair rules have control.

This event had an affect that allowed for there to be the desire for more change. There was a boycott started on December 5, 1955. They protested the buses by avoiding them because of what had happened with Parks and because of how unfair it was for everyone. It was known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This case along with other similar ones started to make their way up the courts to the U.S. Supreme Court. This boycott was something that helped lead to the decision at the U.S. Supreme Court that Montgomery's segregation laws that were on the buses were deemed unconstitutional later on. The bus boycott lasted for 381 days. Her arrest was something that made it that the local segregation laws were able to be tried. This boycott also helped bring attention to what was going on since it was when Martin Luther King Jr. started to voice his opinion, which caused positive changes later.

Before all of this, Parks was a part of the NAACP and was the chapter secretary of the Montgomery chapter.The NAACP was the “National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.” This was a civil rights organization that responded to the violence that was going on across the country towards African Americans. She was also very respected in her community. She was married to Raymond Parks, who was also heavily involved the civil rights movement.  With everything she had accomplished, Parks earned the name “the mother of the civil rights movement.” 

Sources:
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/rosa-parks 

https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/what.htm

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/rosa-parks 

https://www.britannica.com/event/Montgomery-bus-boycott