Throughout her early life she encountered segregation on a daily basis. From kindergarten through eleventh grade she attended segregated only schools often having to be educated in a one room shack that was not suitable for educational purposes (Bio). At 1 9 she met and married Raymond Parks who was an active member in the NAACP (Nation Advancement of Colored People) and he also worked as a barber while Rosa was a seamstress in a department store. On December 1, 1 955 Mrs.. Parks boarded a Montgomery city bus after getting off of work, she paid her fare ND boarded the back of the bus as required by city code.
As the bus traveled deeper into its route it began to fill and some of the Caucasian passengers didn’t have a place to sit so the driver pulled the bus over and instructed several African American passengers to move further to the rear of the bus, Mrs.. Parks refused. Her refusal to move resulted in her arrest which angered many members of the NAACP (Think). As a result of her injustice many African American leaders pleaded to the community to boycott the buses until Jim Crow laws were lifted and separate but equal was no longer acceptable.
The Montgomery bus boycott lasted for 13 months until the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional (Stanford). This was the starting of the civil rights movement, it showed that African Americans had a voice and that they would and could be heard. The most astonishing aspect of the Montgomery bus boycott was that not only was it a nonviolent movement that sparked national change on segregation laws but it was darted with an ordinary woman who decided to speak up for injustice and in turn it caused an extraordinary historical change in the United States.
Many people may view Rosa Parks as being the mother of the civil rights movement. She took a stand on something she believed was wrong, she was humiliated and her character was attacked but through all of that she acted like a lady. She carried herself with poise and grace, she never gave into the violence and to this day she is the epitome of a true lady. Mrs.. Parks passed away October 4, 2005 in Detroit Michigan (Bio) although she is gone in the natural her name and spirit will resound in many of us for years to come.
