Rosa Parks

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Written by Lin Donn Illustrated by Phillip Martin
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One day in December 1955, Mrs. Rosa Parks boarded
a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She was tired
from a busy day at work. She was tired of sitting
in the back of the bus. But mostly, she was tired
of the wrongness of things. It didn't make any
sense. It had never made any sense. 
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There was a law in Alabama that required persons
of color to ride in the back of the bus and to
give up their seat to a white person if the bus
was crowded. Why should she have to sit in the
back? Why should she have to give up her seat
just because of her skin color? 
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That day, when the bus driver told her to move to
allow a white person to be seated, Mrs. Parks
refused. She did not argue. She simply refused to
get up and move. She could have been hurt.
Someone could have shoved her or hit her. No one
did. The bus driver called the police. The police
took Mrs. Parks away to jail.
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It was not the first time someone had refused to
move. But it was the first time that it was
someone many people knew. Mrs. Parks had once
worked as the secretary to the president of the
NAACP (National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People.) That was an important job.
She knew a lot of people, and they knew her. They
knew she was soft-spoken and gentle and kind.
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When Martin Luther King, Jr. heard that Mrs.
Parks had been arrested, he called a meeting at
his church. A huge crowd gathered to hear what he
had to say. People wanted things to change, but
they were afraid. They did not want to be
arrested or attacked. People shrugged their
shoulders and said there was nothing they could
do. It was just the way things were. 
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Dr. King believed there was something they could
do. They could boycott. They could refuse to ride
the buses. That would cost the city a lot of
money. The city and bus officials would not like
that.
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On the morning of December 5th, not everyone, but
many people of color refused to ride the bus.
They walked. They rode mules. Those few people
with cars acted as a shuttle service, taking
others to work and wherever they needed to go.  
It took a long time for the boycott to work. It
took 381 days. 
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Change came on November 13, 1956, when the
Supreme Court ruled that Alabama's laws requiring
segregation on buses - requiring persons of color
to ride in the back of the bus, and to give up
their seat in the colored section to a white
person if the bus was crowded - were illegal.
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At first, the Montgomery city government ignored
the Supreme Court ruling. About a month later,
federal orders were given to the city and bus
company officials that gave them a choice - they
could obey the Supreme Court's ruling or they
could go to jail themselves!
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Many white people were glad. They wanted things
to change. But some white people were angry.
During the year-long boycott, they fought back
with acts of terrorism. They threw a bomb at Dr.
King's house. His wife and baby daughter were
inside. His family did escape, but it was a
terrifying thing.
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Every time something terrifying happened, even
when they bombed his home knowing his wife and
baby
daughter were inside, Dr. King met anger with
love. "We must learn to meet hate with love," he
would say.
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Finally, just over a year after the courageous
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, a very
good thing happened. A few days before Christmas,
Dr. King, a black minister, and his good friend
Reverend Smiley, a white minister, sat together
on the front seat of a Montgomery city bus. The
battle for equal rights under the law was not
won. There were many battles ahead before the job
would be done. But that was a most special
morning.
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To learn more about this historic event, explore
the links below.
They Changed the World Eyes on the Prize Rosa
Parks, How I Fought for Civil Rights   Martin
Luther King Jr. Black History Month - Free
Presentations in PowerPoint format Free Black
History Month Clipart
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