Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks (1913-2005)


Born as Rosa Louise McCauley on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama, she grew up suffering from bad health and segregation of Blacks and Whites. Soon after her parents separated, she became an active member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Since she lived in the South, the segregation was especially hard. The Jim Crow laws made it illegal for Blacks and Whites to be in the same part of bars, buses and basically every public place. Since high schools were public places, there was a white school and a black school, in which she didn't finish high school when she was young.
In 1932, she married Raymond Parks and her name changed to Rosa McCauley Parks. He was a member of NAACP and urged her to participate. With his support, she finished high school as one of less than 7% of African Americans in these days.
In December 1943, she became active in the Civil Rights Movement and soon was elected volunteer secretary of the president of NAACP. She was the only woman in the movement.
At about 6 pm on Thursday, December 1, 1955 in downtown montgomery, Rosa Parks would do something for what she would be always remembered.
She entered the bus to go home, she sat down in the first "black" row in the back of the bus, right behind the ten rows reserved for Whites only. When all the white seats were full and there were still white people coming, the bus driver moved the "black section" sign a few rows back and told the our black people who sat in the front to move. Three of them left. Rosa Park didn't. After she argumented with the driver, James Blake, he called the police an had her arrested. She was bailed out a few days later, but her action will always be remembered as a brave woman standing up for her rights.

-Miriam & Yasmeen

3 comments:

Frank said...

You guys did a great job on describing Rosa Park's involvement in Civil rights. Before reading this, I thought that Parks's only involvement was the bus incedent. Also, you could improve the structure by reformatting paragraphs becase it makes it a little hard to read.

Jesus G said...

Just like frank, all i knew about Rosa Park was the bus incident. I never knew that she was such an activist in civil right affairs. Very nice brief summary that captured all the important facts. Possibly include a picture for us next time?

Jonathan Nguyen said...

Good job on adding Rosa's background. We can see how she came to be, through the situations she went through. I can tell you did a lot of research by all of the info in the post. You didn't just write about how Rosa's bus event; you expanded on how segregation affected her. Great job :D