History Of The Bus Boycott

Claudette Colvin was born on September 5th 1939, in Montgomery Alabama. “Claudette Colvin was an A student at all-black Booker T. Washington High” (15 Freedman). She was a 15 year old spunky girl who was upset about segregation. She did what Rosa Parks did, but nine months earlier, and it did not spark as much controversy. Claudette Colvin felt like she sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott by refusing to get out of her seat.

In December of 1955, Rosa Parks sat in the front of the bus and refused to give up her seat to a white male. She was later arrested and put in jail. This caused the black people of Montgomery to initiate a boycott, the refusal to use the services of the bus company. They did this in order to gain

In 1996 she won the Medal of Freedom Award and in 1999, the Congressional Gold Medal and the Southern Christian Leadership Council created an annual Rosa Parks Freedom Award. Parks clearly showed America that she made right decision as she bravely chose not to give up her seat for a white man on that December day on the

Rosa dropped out to take care of her family. Rosa met a successful barber in Montgomery named Raymond Parks. They had married a year later in 1932. On her husbands insistence Rosa went back to school earning her high school diploma. On December 1, 1955 while riding the bus she was asked to leave her seat for a white passenger she refused to do so and was arrested. She was charged with breaking segregation laws. For her devotion in Civil Rights Movements Rosa was awarded: Springarn Medal, Martin Luther King Jr. Award, Academy of Achievements Golden plate Award, Detroit- Windsor, International Freedom festival freedom award, Congressional Gold Medal, as well as the Presidential Medal of freedom. When asked if she was happy living in retirement. Rosa Parks replied. “ I do the very best I can to look upon life with optimism and hope and looking forward to a better day, but I don’t think there is any such thing as complete happiness, it pains me that there is still a lot of Klan activity and racism. I think when you say you're happy, you have everything that you want, and nothing more to wish for. I haven't reached that stage yet”. (Parks,

Rosa McCauley was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on February 4, 1913. She moved with her parents, James and Leona, to Pine Level, Alabama, at the age 2 to reside with Leona’s parents.Rosa moved to Montgomery, Alabama, at age 11 and eventually attended high school there, a laboratory school at the Alabama State Teachers’ College for Negroes. She left at 16, in 11th grade because she needed to care for her grandmother and, shortly thereafter, her chronically ill mother. ¨In 1932, at 19, she married Raymond Parks, a self-educated man 10 years her senior who worked as a barber and was a long-time member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He supported Rosa in her efforts to earn her high-school diploma, which she ultimately did the following year.¨(Newsmakers) even at a young age of 19 she supported african American rights and dedicated her life to education and caring for people but nothing prepared her for what was going to happen next in life.

This website gives some facts/details about Rosa Parks life, Rosa parks was also a seamstress, but she was mainly known for her heroic acts during segregated times as an activist, Rosa was born in Alabama the city of Tuskegee February 4, 1913 and died on the date of October 24, 2005 in Detroit, MI

Right after she boycott the Supreme Court ruling forced to desegregate its buses. Leaving her being called “The Mother of Civil Rights.” After her arrest and was bailed by her husband, she struggled for racial equality and was teased very much. She later became a nationally recognized symbol of dignity and strength. Even during a struggle to end entrenched racial segregation. Rosa Parks is a dignified woman who fought for her freedoms instead of sitting there and waiting for someone else to do it. “The mother of Civil Rights” stood strong throughout her peaceful war with the congregation and in the light of day she prevailed to make us all

Rosa Parks is one of the famous activists of civil disobedience; she has experienced the foulness of segregation all her life. She was born Rosa McCauley on February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. She received a poor education from a poor segregated school house, and dropped out of Alabama State Teachers College for Negroes to care for her sick grandma. She married Raymond Parks, a barber and an activist of NAACP at age 19 (Rosa).

award. And on September 9, 1996 President Bill Clinton awarded Rosa Parks with the President Medal Of Freedom award which is the highest honor given by the U.S. executive branch. And the list of awards for Rosa Parks goes on in on but one thing that really caught my eye was that Troy University in 2000 created the Rosa Parks Museum located at the site of her arrest in downtown Montgomery, Alabama. But we all know Rosa had a big influence on black people especially the Rosa Parks arrest because her refusal of giving up her seat to a white passenger. Because there were no more white passenger seats.

It is likely a cold day in December of 1955, when Rosa Parks steps onto a Montgomery city bus after a long day’s work. Sitting in the back of the bus, she may be passing the time by gazing out of a window, anticipating the relief of finally reaching home. Her thoughts are then interrupted when white passengers boarded the bus and found no available seats. When the driver asks her and other passengers to give up their seats, Parks does something strange- she refuses. A threat of arrest does move her, and Parks does not resist as she is apprehended and taken to a police station. Most people cite her defiance as her single contribution in catalyzing the Civil Rights movement. However, Rosa Parks was long involved with civil rights, and her efforts would continue throughout and after the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Even though Rosa Parks stood up for her rights she still suffered after the arrest. She lost her department store job and her husband was fired because he talked about Rosa’s legal case to his boss. They had to leave Montgomery because they could not find any other jobs, no one would hire her. They ended up moving to Detroit Michigan and she found a job as a secretary and receptionist in U.S. Representative John Conyers congressional office. She also started to serve on the board of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

“The only tired I was, was tired of giving in” (Parks). I was tired, tired of being oppressed, and tired of being stepped on by the law, and my fellow people. That was the only tired i felt. The Montgomery Bus protest sparked a fire that would be felt throughout the entire country, and it was the spark that ignited the fire of the civil rights movement that shook the world. The boycott was the first of it, once light was shown on the problem, she began travelling cross country spreading information about civil rights, and sparking more peaceful protest. Rosa Parks was an important figure that changed the direction of the United States of America. She was trying to get home from work that day, but she turned into an icon for the civil rights movement, and shined a light on the unfair treatment of african americans.

Various authors state " She also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor." ("Rosa Parks"657). This demonstrates why she is considered a hero to many. Because of the act on the bus, she was able to build a legacy for herself by giving back and making such an impact on this

On Thursday evening December 1, 1955, Rosa boards a Montgomery City Bus to go home after a long day working as a seamstress. She walks back to the section for blacks, and takes a seat. The law stated that they could sit there if no White people were standing. Rosa parks never liked segregation rules and has been fighting against them for more than ten years in the NAACP, but until then had never broke any of the unjust rules. As the bus stops at more places, more white people enter the bus, all the seats in the “White Only” section was filled and the bus driver orders Rosa’s row to move to the back of the bus, they all moved, accept Rosa. She was arrested and fined for violating a city regulation. This act of defiance began a movement that ended legal Segregation in America, and made her an inspiration to freedom devoted people everywhere.

Although widely honored in later years, she also suffered for her act; she was fired from her job as a seamstress in a local department store. Rosa Parks’ received national recognition, including the NAACP's 1979 Spingarn Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, and a posthumous statue in the United States Capitol's National Statuary Hall. Upon her death in 2005, she was the first woman and second non-U.S. government official to lie in honor at the Capitol Rotunda.