Rosa Louise McCauley Parks

Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King (National Archives and Records Administration Records of the U.S. Information Agency Record Group 306)

"I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people." That is a quote from a person who helped make our nation what it is today, that is a quote from Rosa Parks.

Her Full name was Rosa Louise McCauley, and she was born on February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her parents' names were McCauley and Leona Edwards. She had one brother. When Rosa was a young girl, she was sick most of the time. Due to that, she was a very tiny little girl. When she was young her parents separated, and her mother moved her and her brother to Pine Level, Alabama. They eventually moved to Montgomery, Alabama. During her childhood, the Jim Crow laws became in effect, so her life was deeply affected since she was black. The Jim Crow laws were the laws that segregated the black people from the white people in pretty much everything they did. For school, the white people got to ride the bus, but the black kids had to walk to their school, and were not allowed to attend school with white children. Public restrooms, drinking fountains, and transportation were some factors affected by these laws.

In 1932 Rosa married to a man named Raymond Parks, and was now Rosa Louise Parks. Her husband was a sweet man who convinced Rosa to finish her High School years and get her high school diploma. She accomplished this goal in 1933. As a young woman she tried to vote, but was not able to because the people would not let her register. But after three tries, she was finally able to vote. She was influenced by her husband to join the NAACP, which her husband was already a part of, in 1943. She served as the secretary to the President for thirteen years. In 1944 she took a job at the Maxwell Air Force base. Segregation wasn't allowed there and this is where Rosa was first intrigued by the Civil Rights Movement.

Rosa Parks is a legend, a role model for all people around the world. Not only did the United States learn a lot from her, but the whole world learned some. She is now a worldwide figure and has literally changed our world just because of that one day when she refused to move. Her acts taught us that there is nothing different about black people and white people. Everyone on earth, no matter where they are from, what they look like, and the colour of their skin, is a person, and we are all unique in our own ways. The very important thing we learned is that no one race is better than the other, as humans we are equal, but have our own unique qualities. She is a Hero; in so many ways Rosa Parks saved our lives. Can you imagine living in a world like she did? Living in a world where black people and white people rode in different sections of the bus, went to different schools, water fountains, bathrooms, and weren't supposed to talk? I definitely can't, and that is why I am so thankful to Rosa Parks. She helped my life be a good one, one where I can talk to whoever I want, go to school with whoever I want, and not have to worry about people being treated unfairly. Yes, some people are still prejudiced against black people. The United States has a group called the Klu Klux Klan, and they are a group that wears all white clothes and masks and are very against black people. They used to be allowed to burn crosses in people's yards and sometimes kill people, but now members of this organization are kept very controlled. The only thing they can do is marches in the streets, and the police men are right next to them so that they don't do anything.

Rosa Parks is best known to people for standing up to segregation. The best known story of her is that she was tired after a long day's work and just wanted to sit down. So she got on the bus, paid and sat in the first row after the white section ended. When a white man boarded, there were no seats left in the white area, so the bus driver demanded that Rosa move so that he could sit down. Rosa refused to do so. The bus driver got angry and called the police, she was immediately arrested. She later said, "It was not pre-arranged. It just so happened that the driver made a demand and I just didn't feel like obeying his demand. I was quite tired after spending a full day working." She didn't know that her arrest would have such a great effect on people. After she was arrested she swore that she wouldn't ride the buses again until they were not segregated. Eventually more and more people joined Rosa and stopped riding the buses, saying that they would ride again when the buses were not segregated. This was the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a famous boycott that Rosa Parks started. The bus companies were not doing so well because barely anyone was riding the buses. The companies decided to just give the people what they wanted in order to get money, so the buses had no segregation. She fought for the rest of the city to stop treating black people as they did. She joined Martin Luther King Jr. in his fight against Civil Rights. Eventually Rosa Parks became a big part of the Civil Rights Movement. Rosa spent most of her young adult life fighting for desegregation, voting rights, and a lot of other racial disputes.

One time that Rosa Parks didn't take things to such drastic action was when she refused to get off the bus and walk to the back then get on again because it was raining outside. She just wanted to walk from the front to the back inside; the driver would not allow it. He demanded that she get out, so she got up. But on her way out she dropped her purse, and as she bent down to get it, she half sat in a white man's chair. The bus driver was furious and threw her off the bus; she barely had time to get out before he drove off, and she had to walk home alone in the rain. That incident was thirteen years before she got arrested, and coincidentally enough, the bus driver was the same guy! Rosa Parks was a very religious person, and gives a great deal of credit to her belief in god and her prayers. She felt it ridiculous for the white people to treat the black people like trash. They were no different than them except for the colour of their skin. "Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it," said Rosa Parks in her book Rosa Parks: My Story. Rosa Parks died on October 24, 2005 of progressive dementia at age 92.

Without the people who fought for the Civil Rights Movement, and the right of black people, our lives would be very different, and I can guarantee most of you wouldn't like it. Rosa Parks fought hard and strong for what she believed in. She went to extreme measures to get her message out to people, and our country is what it is today because of hers, and many other peoples doings. She has well earned the name Hero, and she will always be in our hearts. She said, "I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free, so that other people could be free." And she is remembered as that, she reached her goal and is a role model and hero for all of us.