Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks (http://www.biography.com/people/rosa-parks-9433715?page=1)

  Civil rights activist Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her first fight for civil rights began with refusal to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery, Alabama bus which stirred a city-wide boycott. The city of Montgomery had no choice but to lift the law requiring segregation on public buses. Rosa Parks was praised during her lifetime, including the NAACP's highest award.

  Before her life changed along with others, everything was upside down. After her parents separated, her mother moved the family to live with Rose and Sylvester Edwards, her parents, on their farm. Both her grandparents were former slaves and strong believers in racial equality. The city of Pine Level, Alabama had a new school building and bus transportation for white children while African-American kids walked to a one-room schoolhouse, also lacking the right supplies or equipment for them.  Through the rest of Rosa's education, she attended segregated schools in Montgomery. In 1932, Rosa married a barber named Raymond Parks who was an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. With Raymond's support, Rosa Parks completed her high school degree in 1933. She soon became actively involved in civil rights issues my joining the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP in 1943, serving as the secretary to the president, E.D. Nixon until 1957.

  In Montgomery, Alabama all public transportation were required to be segregated and also that the bus driver had "power of a police officer," so they had the control. But on December 1, 1955, after a  day at work Rosa boarded the bus heading home. She took a seat in the first row designated for "colored" passengers. Though the city's bus did give drivers the authority to assign seats, it didn't give them the authority to make a passenger to give up a seat to anyone. However, Montgomery bus drivers had the custom of commanding black passengers to give up their seats to white passengers, when no other seats were available. If they protested then they could call the police.

  As the bus filled up with white passengers, the bus driver noticed that white passengers were standing up. So the driver took the "colored" sign and moved it back two sections back. Two of the black passengers moved without complaint but Rosa did not. The driver said, "Why don't you stand up?" to which Rosa replied, "I don't think I should have to stand up." The driver called the police and had her arrested. Later, she recalled that her refusal wasn't because she was tired, but that she was tired of giving in. And because of this the boycotted began. They planned, and on Monday they refused to rides buses of a estimate of 40,000 African-Americans walked to and from work. But there were consequences like burned down building, fighting, and being arrested.

Poster (http://www.biography.com/people/rosa-parks-9433715/photos ())

    African-American community took legal action. With the Brown v. Board of Education decision that said separate but equal policies had no place in public education, a black legal team took the issue of segregation on public tranportation systems to federal court. In June of 1956, the court declared Alabama's racial segregation laws for public transit unconstitutional. The city appealed and on November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling. With the transit company and downtown businesses suffering money loss and the legal system ruling against them, the city of Montgomery had no choice but to lift the law.