Let's Learn More About...
Rosa Parks
- Civil Rights Activist
- Born: 1913 in Tuskegee, AL
- Died: 2005 in Detroit, MI
- Best Known For: Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa's Story:
On Thursday, December 1, 1955, Parks was commuting home from work by bus. Segregation was written into law; the front of a Montgomery bus was reserved for white citizens, and the seats behind them for Black citizens. However, bus drivers had the authority to ask a Black person to give up a seat for a white rider.
Nonetheless, at one point on the route, a white man had no seat because all the seats in the designated “white” section were taken. So the driver told the riders in the four seats of the first row of the “colored” section to stand. The three others obeyed. Parks did not.
Eventually, two police officers approached the stopped bus, assessed the situation and placed Parks in custody. On December 5, Parks was found guilty of violating segregation laws, given a suspended sentence and fined $10 plus $4 in court costs.
In solidarity with Parks, the Black population of Montgomery began to arrange a boycott of the buses on the day of Parks’ trial. 35,000 flyers were mimeographed to be sent home with Black schoolchildren, informing their parents of the planned boycott. Black participation in the boycott was much larger than anticipated. Activists decided to take advantage of the momentum, forming the Montgomery Improvement Association to manage the boycott, and they elected Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as the MIA’s president.
In the year that followed, appeals and related lawsuits made their way through the courts, all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. The boycott angered much of Montgomery’s white population and sparked some violence, where Dr. King’s home was bombed.
On November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional; the boycott officially ended December 20 and Parks became known as “the mother of the civil rights movement.”
What You Also Need To Know:
We know the basics of the story of Rosa Parks, but there is additional information that is important to her story. What you also need to know:
- Young Rosa was known for her defiance of Jim Crow norms and laws. By the time of the 1955 bus incident, Parks had a track record as a relentless, long-time fighter of the status quo, which she described as “a life history of being rebellious.”
- Parks was a long-time member of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She worked as the recording secretary for the NAACP almost 15 years before the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
- Rosa Parks was not the first African American woman to be arrested for refusing to yield her seat on a Montgomery bus.
- Nine months before Parks was jailed, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was the first Montgomery bus passenger to be arrested for refusing to give up her seat for a white passenger. (Parks was involved in raising defense funds for Colvin.)
- Three other African American women—Aurelia Browder, Mary Louise Smith and Susie McDonald—also fought bus segregation law prior to Parks. All four were plaintiffs in the Browder v. Gayle case that resulted in the Supreme Court ruling bus segregation unconstitutional.
- Weeks after her arrest, Parks was jailed a second time for her role in the boycott. Parks was on the executive board of directors of the group organizing the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and she worked for a short time as a dispatcher, arranging carpool rides for boycotters. On February 21, 1956, a grand jury handed down indictments against Parks and dozens of others for violating a state law against organized boycotting. She and 114 others were arrested, and The New York Times ran the now famous photograph of Parks being fingerprinted by police.
- Parks was repeatedly rejected at the voter registration office but she kept returning until she was registered.
Articles To Read
Click the article title to open in a new tab.
History.com
National Women’s History Museum
History.com
Urana McCauley As Told To Liz Dwyer
Videos To Watch
How can we learn more about
the Montgomery Bus Boycott?
Learn about others before the movement:
Claudette Colvin
Mary Louise Smith
Aurelia Browder
Susie McDonald
Look Up The Browder v. Gayle Segregation Case
Learn about the Montgomery Improvement Association
Study the laws in the South in the 1950s
Activities To Do
Repetition is a key learning aid because it helps transition a skill from the conscious to the subconscious. Through repetition, a skill is practiced and rehearsed over time and gradually becomes easier. (Source) Many concepts on this website are VERY BIG topics for little kids, so repetition is going to be key for promoting understanding and learning. Below is a collection of activities to help you to continue the learning in a new way!
Click the icons to download each activity.
Coloring Page
These coloring pages are a free download from Texas Teacherella, a Black educator from Austin, Texas!
Keep Learning!
Support Black Educators! Check out these additional resources from Texas Teacherella to extend your learning about Black activists and more! This is a paid product offered in her shop.
