Rosa+Parks

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama on February 4, 1913 to James McCauley and Leona Edwards. She was of African-American, Cherokee-Creek, and Scots-Irish descent. Her parents separated when she was a small child; therefore, she, her mother, and younger brother, Sylvester, moved to her grandparents farm outside of Montgomery, Alabama. There she attended rural schools, until the age of eleven at which point she enrolled in the Industrial School for Girls in Montgomery. Later, she attended high school at the Alabama State Teachers College for Negroes. However, she later dropped out in order to help take care of her grandmother, and later her mother when they became ill. It was as a child that Parks first began to realized the segregation between blacks and whites in the South. She recalls having to walk to school while white children were bussed to their school. She said "I'd see the bus pass every day... But to me, that was a way of life; we had no choice but to accept what was the custom. The bus was among the first ways I realized there was a black world and a white world." In 1932, Rosa married Raymond Parks, a barber from Montgomery, in her mother's home. In 1933, with the encouragement of her husband, Rosa finished high school and recieved her diploma, something that on 7% of African-Americans did at the time. Around this time, she also registered to vote, after three trys. In 1943, Rosa began to become more involved in the Civil Rights Movement and at that point joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). Her husband had a member since their marrige. She was selected as the secretary of which she later said, "I was the only woman there, and they needed a secretary, and I was too timid to say no." In 1944, she took a job working at the Maxwell Airforce Base, a federally owned area where segregation was not allowed and rode a integrated trolley to work. Her time at Maxwell greatly opened her eyes to racial segregation and how life would be without. Several events led up to Rosa's arrest. One of these involved Jackie Robinson, an African-American baseball star, during his time as an officer in the military when he refused to move to the back of bus. Robinson was brought before the court and aquitted of the charges. Another incident was only months before Park's own arrest. A 15 year old student at Booker T. Washington High School in Montgomery, Claudette Colvin, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. She claimed that her constitutional rights were being violated. Rosa began raising money for Colvin's defense; however, when NAACP president E. D. Nixon found that after her arrest, Colvin was become pregnant by a older married man, he felt that Colvin was an unsuitable for their cause. They believed that the white press would use Colvin's pregnancy to undermine a boycott. In Montgomery, Alabama, as in other places in the South, the first four rows on buses were reserved for white people. Blacks, who made up almost 75% of the riders, were allowed to sit in the middle section until the white section was full, and then they were forced to move back, stand, of completely get off the bus. The driver could also move the colored section, or remove it all together. If the white section was full, black riders could board through the front door to pay their fare and then get off and re-board through the back door. At times, the bus left before black customers who had paid could get back on the bus. For many years, blacks had complained that the situation was unfair, and Parks was no exception. She spent much time walking, because she would rather walk then bear the mistreatment. After a long day of work at a department store in Montgomery, Rosa boarded a bus a 6 pm on Monday December 1, 1955 to go home. She paid her fare and sat in the first row of back seats reserved for "Coloreds" near the middle of the bus. The bus began to get more passengers, and when it stopped at the Empire State Building, several white passengers got on the bus. The bus driver noted that several men were standing and therefore, moved the colored section behind Rosa and forced four black passengers to move and give up their seats to the white passengers. Parks later recalled the event "When that white driver stepped back toward us, when he waved his hand and ordered us up and out of our seats, I felt a determination cover my body like a quilt on a winter night. The driver wanted us to stand up, the four of us. We didn't move at the beginning, but he says, 'Let me have these seats.' And the other three people moved, but I didn't." Finally, Parks moved, but towards to the window seat. "When he saw me still sitting, he asked if I was going to stand up, and I said, 'No, I'm not.' And he said, 'Well, if you don't stand up, I'm going to have to call the police and have you arrested.' I said, 'You may do that'" Parks later recalled about the event. When Parks further refused to give up her seat, a police officer arrested her and she was taken to jail. She was charged with violation of Chapter 6, Section 11 segregation law of the Montgomery City code. She was bailed out of jail on the night of December 2, by E.D Nixon (President of the Montgomery chapter of NAACP) and Clifford Durr. On Sunday December 4, 1955, plans for a bus boycott were announced in black churches across the city and on a front page advertisement on //The Montgomery Advertiser.// Those involved agreed to boycott the buses until blacks were treated with respect, black bus drivers were hired, and seating was handled at a first-come basis. On Monday, December 5, Parks was tried for disorderly conduct and violating a local ordinance. During trial, which lasted 30 minutes, Parks was found guilty and fined $10 plus a $4 court fee. Parks appealed the ruling and publically challenged the legality of racial segregation. Although the boycott was meant to only last temporarily, it lasted for a total of 381 days. Many public buses sat idle for months, and as a result, the bus transit company's profit greatly suffered until the law requiring racial segregation of buses was lifted.

In 1994, the Klu Klux Klan applied to sponsor a section of US Interstate near St. Louis, Missouri, for clean up (which allowed them to have signs stating that this section of highway was maintained by the organization). Since the state could not refuse the KKK's sponsorship, the Missouri Legislature voted to rename that road the "Rosa Parks Highway."
 * Interesting Fact:**