In which US state did Rosa Parks refuse to relinquish her bus seat, helping to initiate the civil rights movement?
Civil rights activist Rosa Louise McCauley was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. On December 1st, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man who was standing as all the ‘white’ seats had been taken. She was arrested and on December 5th, a boycott of the buses started that lasted for 381 days. The boycott only ended when shop keepers in Montgomery urged a settlement as their livelihoods were being ruined as so few African-Americans went into Montgomery to do any shopping. In 1956, the Supreme Court deemed that segregation on buses was unconstitutional. Along with the ‘Brown’ decision of 1954, this legal ruling is seen as being of great significance in civil rights history. Parks was given the title “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement”.
More Info:
www.historylearningsite.co.uk
What are your thoughts on this subject?
35 Comments
George Oliver Prince
it took a lot of courage for her to stand up for rights during that time period. The boycott definitely had an economic impact on Montgomery
jhachey
I wanted to answer in a state of rebellion, but that wasn't an option.
Ceil G.
I will never forget those days. As a six-year-old child I wrote the bus often by myself. I once offered my seat to an older black woman, ike I was raised to do, and I was reprimanded by the bus driver who called me white trash. I'm glad those days are over. Yes there is still discrimination. But you can't change everyone's heart, sad as that is. The things are much much improved. Oh and that happened up north.
Lawanta
The bus involved in the incident, is now displayed at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Rosa Parks was certainly a brave woman!
robert karel
Actually there was another woman before her who refused to give her seat up to a white man but I forget her name. I’m not white, I’m part Asian. Caucasian!
nmcgirt
Sometimes in order to win a victory and fight evil there must be sacrafices. Rosa Parks was a warrior in the fight for equality.
Theda Davis
Sheri Clayton, I would check facts, and not rely on old fables. Rosa parks was a tired seamstress, but her 'stand' was a planned action by the SCLC. Another woman had defied the law before, but the SCLC couldn't get behind her because she had a record. They wanted someone who had great character and Rosa Parks was that woman. They were scary times such defiance could have resulted in her being beaten, maybe to death. Brave woman.
Marcella Kosse
Got that.
davidgrimsrud
great trivia
gdwhitton
I remember the segregated buses, drinking fountains, even the restrooms in some places in my home town growing up in the 50's. But I tell you right now, when I was a kid in elementary school I used to ride the city busses all over town using a transfer and I never got fussed at more than when I sat down in the black folks section of the bus. They ran me out like I was contagious or something. It was a sad time in our history just like the holocaust was a sad time in Germany. I am glad we outgrew those kind of practices. It's STILL time to move on. Prejudice is evil incarnate.
Diane Bass Mccraine
I will never forget the 50's & 60's in the South, it broke my heart to see all the hate, as a child I could not understand. We had people who worked on my grandfather's farm that I truly loved because they help raise me. I would tell them to be careful if they went to town because things could happen. God kept a watch on them and they never got hurt. I still miss them.
Stormi Chavez
Got it
Farida Ferhat
Woo hoo! I got it right.
Souleyman Gorckui d'Almeida
I knew it
Elaine Strever Amoroso
Rhoda Welker Adam, I also grew up in upstate NY during the 50's-60's. Went to school with black children who did everything that whites did, played sports, ate lunch together, used the same bathrooms. I find this type of behavior so foreign to my childhood, guess I lived a sheltered life.
markzim
Well, I answered it wrong, Mississippi, but my first guess was right, Alabama, and I should have
gone with my gut. Oops is right!
Joyce Bruns
Got it...happened when I was 8 years old, and living in Maine. The whole situation in the south was beyond my comprehension, I just couldn't understand why people could be so mean to people just because of skin color. It still doesn't make sense.