Rosa Parks 2

Rosa Parks' mugshot (http://www.rosaparksfacts.com/rosa-parks-pictures-photos.php?type=civil-rights)

Rosa Parks is my hero because she was a strong-minded person. When she was arrested, she didn’t get mad at the officer. She held her head up high and walked out of the jail with pride. She was a very important part of the Civil Rights Movement. No matter what she went through, she always had faith. Nothing could tear her down physically or mentally. She inspires me to this day to never give up no matter what difficulty I am going through; there is always a rainbow after a storm.

Rosa Parks was a woman who fought for what she believed in. On December 1, 1995 she got on the bus after a long day at work, and sat in the front seat. During that time African-Americans were not allowed to sit at the front. The bus driver told her to move to the back, but she refused. She was just too tired. The bus driver was not happy with that.

He called the police and they arrested her. When Edgar Nixon, president of the NAACP, and Clifford Durr, long time friend, came and got her, she described how her time in jail was. They wouldn't even let her get a drink of water. She told them how she had been arrested for civil disobedience. After this incident, things changed drastically. Two days after she was arrested, church groups from her community started organizing a boycott on the Montgomery bus services. For most of her life she fought for rights of voting and integration. One day, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King JR. and JoAnn Robinson sat on different corners of streets watching the buses go by. They saw less and less Africans on the buses each day.

Once the police got word of blacks standing on the street, they stood on every corner making sure they didn't bother any of the bus riders. Some people said that this started the Civil Rights Movement. Some say she did it by accident. I believe she just wanted a change. 13 months later, the boycott ended. When she started riding the bus again, she noticed the rules had changed. The one that made her the happiest was the one that read: "Black and whites are allowed to sit where they want." And from that point, the buses of Montgomery, Alabama was integrated. She lived to see what she worked so hard for come true. The hope that one day, we might all be able to get along as on nation. Rosa parks died at the age of 92 on October 24, 2005.