Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks

By: Chip Gray

On December l, 1955, Rosa Parks got on the bus because she was feeling tired after a long day at work. She was sitting in the middle of the bus, which she wasn't allowed to do. After a while a white man got on the bus and told her that her and some other people to get up because the white part of the bus was full. All the Black people except for her moved to the back of the bus but her, she refused to get up. When this happened the white bus driver threatened to call the police unless she gave up her seat, but she said no and "Go ahead and call them". When the police got there, the driver was very mad and then the police asked the driver if he wanted Mrs. Parks to be arrested or let go with a warning, he said he wanted her to be arrested arrest. Many Black had been arrested for this crime but Mrs. Park was well known in her community because she was once a secretary for the president of the NAACP (National Association of the Advancement of Colored People). She was allowed to make one phone call. She called a NAACP lawyer, The lawyer got her release through bail. Just because of this one time that a black woman stood up to society she started the civil rights movement, which got the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which made sure that "All black Americans must be given equal treatment with whites under the law." It was an "established rule" in the American south (at that time) that African-American riders had to sit at the back of the bus. African-American riders were also expected to surrender their seat to a white bus rider if it was needed. (Levenglick, p1) Mrs. Parks had been called as "the mother of the civil rights movement". Since the boycott had been started she was getting threats, which caused her husband to have a nervous breakdown, and in 1957 they both moved to Detroit, where one of Mrs. Parks's brother lived. The bus boycott When people heard that Mrs. Parks had been arrested the Women's Political Council decided to protest her treatment by organizing a boycott of the buses. (Levenglick, p1) They set the boycott for December 5, the day of Mrs. Parks's trial. The boycott lasted 382 days. This caused the bus company to lose a lot of money. At the end of Mrs. Parks trail she was fined for failing to obey a city ordinance, but on the advice of her lawyers she refused to pay the fine so