Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks

Would you like to learn about Rosa Parks? She was a woman who didn’t agree with the laws and wanted whites and blacks to be equal.

Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913, in Alabama. Her mother was a school teacher and her father built houses. She had a brother named Sylvester and she lived in a farm. Her mother's name was Leona McCauly and her father's name was James McCauly. Rosa’s fear was the farm would burn down. Rosa and her brother would go fishing half of the time when they didn’t have to do any work around the farm. When Rosa was growing up, there was discrimination against African Americans.

Since Rosa’s mother was a school teacher, she new that she could teach Rosa how to read, so Rosa learned how to read at age six. Rosa only went to school for five months. When she was at school, she noticed that whites had better bathrooms and better drinking fountains. Her school was called Industrial School for Girls in Montgomery. It was a school only for girls. Rosa still went to school at age 20.

Rosa’s husband was a barber and she was a seamstress. After awhile, Rosa’s husband started to help black people with their problems and Rosa was happy. Rosa decided to do the same job. They were both involved with the NAACP. In 1955, when Rosa was leaving work, she rode on the bus and she sat on the bus for a while, and suddenly, a white man came on the bus and all of the seats were taken.

The bus driver said that the Rosa to give up her seat, but Rosa said no. The police came and Rosa was arrested. She went to jail and she was there for one night. Rosa went to court and knew that she shouldn’t pay the fine. Rosa knew that it was wrong that what they were doing to black people. Rosa's incident inspired the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott and it sparked the Civil Rights Movement. Rosa was really proud of herself; she was really brave. What she did took very hard work to do. She never gave up believing in herself, or gave up on her hopes that she could change the world.

The bus drivers were mad that Rosa and other black people were not going on the bus because that meant that they wouldn't make any money. Rosa was 42 when she went on the bus. People were proud of all the hard work she did. Rosa won a medal in 1997 for making a difference in history. Rosa Parks died on October 25,2005, at age 94.

What I like about Rosa Parks is that she knew that discrimination was wrong so she decided that she should do something about it. That's what I liked about my hero!