Rosa Parks
Let’s go back 61 years in time, which was December 1, 1955, in the busy streets of Montgomery, Alabama. At the end of that cold working day, a 42-year old black seamstress who worked at the Montgomery department store boarded a segregated bus, one of the few options for public transportation that was allowed for blacks at that time. So few, in fact, that this woman was able to recognize the bus driver as James Blake, who was notorious for his adverse treatment of black passengers. Twelve years before this fateful day, the driver got heated up because she refused to pass through the rear entrance of the bus after paying her fare. According to the state’s segregation laws, as a black, she could only pass through the back entrance after paying just to get to her seat behind the whites. This incident didn’t even cross her mind that fateful day of December. It was a long day at work and she just wanted to get home.
After paying, she surveyed the bus for a seat in the colored section, and there, just behind the last row of the white section was an empty seat which she took. As the journey home went on, more and more passengers entered and the bus driver noticed a few whites were already left with no choice but to stand. He walked to a row where four blacks were seated and asked them to get up and give up their seats. Three men from that row reluctantly gave in, but the lone woman remained and wouldn’t budge. Her name was Rosa Parks and little did she know at that time that her simple act of defiance would change the course of history of the United States.
This was not the first occasion that a black woman stood her ground and challenged the law, but it was only Rosa with her undeniable courage and bold character that sparked the fire of racial equality in the community. That same day, she was taken in by the police for violating Alabama segregation laws but received bail the same night.
She was born Rosa Louise McCauley on February 4, 1913 in the town of Tuskegee, Alabama. Growing up, it was not uncommon for her to experience the drawbacks of being born black in a discriminatory community. Add to that, both her parents were strongly against the inequality being experienced by the colored community. In her later interviews, Rosa would describe the perils of living a life with scarce opportunities where fear was a very prominent factor. She grew up with a single mother and her brother and had to get her education in segregated schools until she got married at the age of 19 to a local barber in Montgomery, Alabama. He was Raymond Parks who was part of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Throughout their relationship, they helped and supported each other in their plight for equality between the races.
It cannot be denied that there was a time in history when the southern United States was famous for its segregation laws or more commonly known as “Jim Crow” laws. It all started with the resentment of whites towards freed African Americans wherein the latter became the lesser priority, hence sparking a whole system of inequality that although to a lesser degree, can still be witnessed at present times. The separation could sometimes even be humiliating and degrading to the blacks. In Rosa’s time, public transportation was very much segregated wherein the main priority would always be the whites. Although both could ride the bus, and had supposed equal rights to get a seat, it had already been a custom for the people to put the whites first and placed the colored people at the back of the bus. In all buses, there would be an indicator in the middle of the sections for the whites and blacks. If it so happened that more whites needed seats, the bus driver had the authority to move the line into the section of the blacks and give more space for the whites. There was no written law stating that the blacks were forced to give their seats to the whites, but due to custom, the blacks would always reluctantly give way to the demands of the bus driver. But on that December day, Rosa was tired, and not just physically, but also tired of giving in to all the unfair demands of the whites.
The NAACP always had plans to question the inequality in their community and had been on the lookout for someone to lead the revolution they were planning. Needless to say, Rosa’s actions took everyone by surprise and yet it was exactly what the organization needed to push through with their plans. They were tired of always being the less privileged in society so they decided, with the help of their new minister, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., that on the day of Rosa’s trial, they would conduct a boycott in all of the city buses. It was so effective that it lasted for 382 days and even affected the different kinds of transportation available in the city. It took a huge effect on the transportation business because the black population took about 70% of daily passengers and their absence was causing financial distress to the owners. So the whites retaliated and set out to make Rosa’s life more difficult that it already was. The heads of the organization, Martin Luther King Jr. and E.D Nixon, lost their homes in bomb attacks and Rosa was forced to move to Detroit with her family due to the unrest and threats she received in Alabama.
It was on December 20, 1956 where it all changed for good. The boycott ended once the Supreme Court struck down the Montgomery segregation laws which Rosa and her team filed against. To date, this boycott is still among one of the most successful movements fighting for civil right in the history of the United States. Parks died a peaceful death at the age of 92 but not before receiving the highest awards given by the executive branch and legislative branch of government of the United States, to name a few. This civil right activist has been referred to as the “mother of the freedom movement” and the “first lady of civil rights.”
Her decision to not give up her chair to the white gentleman ended up being the most courageous acts to be recorded in history, making her the first woman to have her remains lie in state at the rotunda of the United Stated Capitol. Half of 100, 000 people came to pay their respects to the woman who became one the most influential people in the 20th century.
