Rosa Parks
Rosa parks was an African American woman and an American citizen. Rosa Parks didn't believe the way blacks were being treated, though she did not intend on trying to change things herself.
Rosa was born on February 4, 1913. She grew up in Pine Level, Alabama. Her maiden name was Rosa Louise McCauley after her grandmother Rose. She had a little brother whose name was Sylvester he was named after his grandfather. Rosa's mother's name was Leona and her father's name was James. Leona was a school teacher and her father built houses. They lived on a farm with her grandmother and grandfather.
Usually Rosa and her brother walked to school because there were no buses for blacks to ride on. Even though white children rode by on a yellow school bus laughing at the sight of her and her brother walking on the dusty gravel, they knew there was no way to stop everything.
In1932 she married a black man named Raymond Parks. He was a barber and lived in Montgomery, Alabama. They lived happy for many years.
One day Rosa was riding on a bus and she was sitting in one of the seats in the section for blacks, but there wasn't enough room for one white person to sit down. The bus driver stood up and said, "Let me have those seats." He wanted them to give our seats to the white people waiting in line. She was tired of doing things she didn't want to do for a person just because of their skin color. Every black person got up except Rosa. The bus driver came over to my seat and said, "I'm going to have to arrest you." but all Rosa said was " You may do so." and stayed right where she was. Soon two policemen arrived. One of them asked her "Why didn't you stand up?" She replied "Why do you push us black people around?" The policemen took her to jail and took her picture, put her fingers on a pad of ink and rolled them around then pushed them down on a white piece of paper. Then they put her in a cell. Even though she didn't have to spend the night in jail, she was supposed to show up at a court in three days, from her arrest, She refused to pay the fine and would not believe that she broke the law.
Many black people had heard about Rosa's arrest and were very angry. Most of them thought it was time to fight harder for better laws. No matter the color of your skin, you are a human, not a dog! Jo Ann Robinson gave Rosa a piece of very helpful advice, "Don't ride the bus if you have to give up your seat to a white people." She thought it was such a good idea that they passed out leaflets asking all black people in the city of Montgomery to stay off the busses for one day. The idea was hopefully, that the buses wouldn't make very much money because not very many people rode the buses if all the blacks get off. This is called a boycott.
A person named E. D. Dixon called a meeting of black people in the church. A young minister named Dr. Martin Luther King jr., told the people to keep off the buses. The people cheered when he said this and the boycott continued. The plan was to walk to the destination, call a taxi, get a ride from a friend. But they would not even think about riding the buses.
Soon Christmas arrived and still the law was the same and the buses were black free. The white people were mad at them. They wanted them to ride the buses again. Some black people even lost their jobs because of it. The boycott caused many things to blacks. Like some were arrested, beaten, and received telephone calls from people who would not say their names. They were saying they wanted to hurt them and everyone else.
Spring arrived and all the black churches had wagons who gave rides to black people who needed to get somewhere but could not walk. Still the buses received few black passengers.
Summer came and the buses stopped running. There simply weren't enough riders with out black people. Soon enough Mr. Nixon and Dr. King hired a lawyer to take our case to court. They hired a lawyer in the Supreme court in Washington, D.C. The people at the court said that the laws against blacks were wrong and they shouldn't have to give up their seats for a person who was just the same as all the other blacks. Nobody believed it THEY HAD WON!!! It was worth staying off buses for a year to be able to sit in a bus seat with out having to move for a white. The buses started running soon.