Rosa Parks

Definition of the word: Free
“enjoying personal rights or liberty, as a person who is not in slavery” This was said to be the definition of what the United States of America stood for, but throughout History, our country has proven to not be as free as what the Constitution stated we would be. Slavery was abolished in December 1865, a small step that would later result into still many years of abuse, prejudice, and injustice towards African-Americans. When would the oppression that befell black Americans finally end? When would they have equal rights like everyone else? On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks rose up against the injustice being displayed. Through her voice and actions she gave evidence to bravery and strength for all the years of persecution that engulfed her and her people. And in doing so, she helped cultivate America as we see it today.

On February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama, Rosa Louise Parks was born. She was of African-American, Cherokee-Creek, and Scots-Irish ancestry. At age eleven, she attended the school of Montgomery Industrial School for Girls and later attended the Alabama State College, having to drop out to care for her grandmother and later her mother, who both fell ill. Between1876 and1965, the Jim Crow Laws were put into practice stating that all public facilities in southern states were to be segregated with a “separate but equal” status towards African-Americans. These laws continued on for the years to come, causing segregation in schools, public places, and public transportation. Blacks were not allowed to attend white schools. In public places, they were only allowed to sit in designated areas, and in public transportation, they had to sit in the back of the bus and often give up their seats to make room for whites to sit in. This is a faint description of what life in the 1950's was like for Rosa Parks. The life that African-Americans were living was inhumane. They were not being treated with the same respect or equal status as whites, but were degraded daily.

Rosa worked for a white couple as a seamstress and housekeeper. She had been coming home from work the day that the opportunity arose for her to stand up against the malfeasance of the 1950's and the world. She boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus, taking a seat in the first row of seats sectioned off for blacks. After a couple of stops, the bus became filled with white passengers. The bus driver, a man named James F. Blake, then approached a row of black passengers sitting in a section for colored people, telling them to give up their seats to the newly boarded white passengers and to take a seat in the back of the bus. When asked later of the events that occurred in this moment, Rosa Parks said, “When the bus driver stepped back towards us, when he waved his hand and ordered us up and out of our seats, I felt determination cover my body like a quilt on a winter night.” It was this very determination she speaks of that helped change the rights for black Americans everywhere. She was determined to stop being bullied, determined to show she had equal rights as anyone else to be sitting where she sat. And she did; she remained seated. When the bus driver asked why she was not going to give up her seat, Rosa Parks replied, “I don't think I should have to stand up.” She stood firm for her rights and her beliefs by remaining seated on that bus. She said no to a world that did not show her the same equal rights as everyone else. Rosa Parks felt that she wasn't being treated fairly or to the equivalent amount as whites. She fought for her rights and in the end achieved them.

The results of the actions that Rosa Parks displayed were unfair; she was arrested and sent to jail. She was sentenced with violation to Chapter 6, Section
11, segregation law of the Montgomery City code. Though she never sat in any seat reserved for just white passengers, sitting only in areas set aside for colored people, she was still arrested and taken to jail. In the evening of December 2, Parks was bailed out of jail. On Sunday, December 4, 1955, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began its first day. The black community pledged to not ride any buses by any means of transportation. Being three-fourths of the public bus transportation business, the buses would lose money, and the black community would make their statement - “Give us our rights, give us our freedom, treat us fairly, treat us equally.” The boycott continued for over a year ending on December 20, 1956, a victory that led to the allowance of black passengers to sit wherever they pleased on a bus. Three hundred and eighty-one days of protesting and they received the equal rights they fought for.

In conclusion, Rosa Parks is a woman in History who stands as a monument of bravery and strength. Rising up for her people and her beliefs, and facilitating change in the black community with the simple act of saying, “No!” she helped cultivate the world around us making a freer America. She lived in an oppressed world, a fake America, a country that wrote a constitution that stated “We are free.” but didn't uphold its own laws. Instead of continually being oppressed, she fought for her rights and became an example that it is possible that you can fight and stand up for your beliefs so that we can live in a free America. She stirred up the black community resulting in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This concluded in another small victory, which paved the way to a land of equal rights and freedoms. It only takes one person, one example to stand up and say no to the injustices in the world. Then and only then will something change. “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.”

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/free http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks#cite_note-7 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws#Public_arena ^ Williams, Donnie; Wayne Greenhaw (2005). The Thunder of Angels: The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the People who Broke the Back of Jim Crow. Chicago Review Press. p. 48. ISBN 1-55652-590-7. ^ Wright, Roberta Hughes (1991). The Birth of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Charro Press. p. 27. ISBN 0-9629468-0-X. Dr. Suess (1971). The Lorax