Rosa Parks

Nowadays in the U.S., people who have different kinds of skin, such as yellow, white and black live together in the same place. But do you think this happened many years ago? Absolutely not. In 1965, a brave woman named Rosa Parks helped initiate the civil rights movement. If Rosa Parks yielded her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus, probably, black people and white people would still be separated from each other.

Rosa Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on February 4, 1913. She had a brother named Sylvester. Her father was employed as a carpenter and her mother was a teacher. Parks was sick much of the time, so she was small and skinny. Her parents divorced when she was young; her mother took Parks and her brother and moved to Pine Level which is near Montgomery, Alabama. There, Parks spent the rest of her childhood on her grandparents' farm.

Her childhood in Pine Level allowed her to have many early experiences with racial discrimination, which caused her to fight for racial equality. In 1932, at the age of 19, when she was a member of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, (NAACP), an organization that helped restore the legal rights of African Americans, she married Raymond Parks who was also a member of NAACP. At this time, she became close friends with those who were influenced by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau. In India, Gandhi's nonviolent civil disobedience movement ended British rule. For this, they were sure that they could use the same method for blacks to gain civil rights in America.

In most towns in the South, buses were segregated. By using these tactics, Parks and her friends planned to obtain civil rights, but under pressure from the NAACP, they could not do that. However, this didn't make her feel frustrated. On December 1st, 1955, it was cold and dark. Parks finished her work at the department store and was on the way to home. She was on the Montgomery bus and sat down in the "white seat section". When Parks was sitting in the "white section seat", a white man came to her and asked her to move but she bravely didn't yield her seat. This happened to her several times and the bus driver forced her off the bus. The court concluded that she was a guilty because she was against the law of segregation. This time, she was put into a jail for a day.

After Rosa Parks was released, she dedicated herself more than before. With her brave acts, many rules that related to racism were banned including the one about bus segregation. Also, her great participation in the racist movement made the U.S. Supreme Court order desegregation of public schools. On October 24, 2005, Rosa died in her home. Both her birthday, February 4th, and the day she was arrested, December 1st, became Rosa Parks day, which is commemorated in California and other states. These are the reasons why my hero is Rosa Parks. She fearlessly refused to give up her seat, joined the NAACP to get civil rights for African Americans, and was also dedicated and courageous. Now, because of her, people of all races, colors, and cultures can exist together. Thanks to her, even I can be where I am today. Rosa Parks is my hero and my inspiration.