How Rosa Parks Changed The World

When I think about someone who has been a success in their career or someone who helped change the world, I think of Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. Growing up in a time of racial inequality she became very aware of the racial discrimination among African Americans and White people. After her parents divorced, her mom moved the family to Pine Level Alabama to live with their grandparents, both former slaves and strong advocates for racial equality. According to the biography website Rosa Parks stated that her grandfather once stood in front of their house with a shotgun while Ku Klux Klan members marched down the street. While in Pine Level she was taught to read by her mom and later attended a one-room segregated school that did not have necessary school supplies, such as desks and books. African-American students were not allowed to ride the bus provided by the city of Pine Level or attend the new school built because it was strictly for white students only. African Americans including Rosa Parks often walked to the elementary school everyday. She would continue her education in Montgomery studying at a laboratory

school led by the Alabama State Teachers College for Negroes. In eleventh grade she left school to return to Pine Level to take care of her sick grandmother and mother. She never returned to school and instead got a job at a shirt factory in Montgomery. In 1932 she married Raymond Parks, an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. With tension rising between Montgomery's large African American community and white people, Rosa Parks became involved in civil rights issues by joining the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP in 1943. She was the chapter's youth leader as well as secretary to NAACP President E.D. Nixon, a position she held until 1957. She fought to change the existing society governed by “Jim Crow” laws which enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States.
Perhaps the most influential thing Rosa Parks did, that would be the driving force behind ending segregation, happened on Thursday, December 1, 1955 while riding the Cleveland Avenue bus home. Segregation laws stated that the front of a Montgomery bus was reserved for white citizens and the seats behind them for black citizens. The bus she was riding home began to fill with white passengers until the bus was full. The driver noticed that several white passengers were standing with nowhere to sit. He stopped the bus and moved the sign separating the two sections back one row and asked four black passengers to give up their seats. Rosa was one of four passengers to refuse to give up her seat. According to the History Channel, the driver demanded, "Why don't you stand up?" to which Rosa replied, "I don't think I should have to stand up." She was arrested and charged with violation of the Montgomery City Code. She later stated in her autobiography “ I was not tired physically… No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” Her arrest sparked what is known as the “Montgomery Bus Boycott”. E.D. Nixon made plans to organize a boycott of Montgomery's city buses on December 5th,1955, the day of Parks trial. On the day of her trial around 500 people came to protest her arrest and support her at her hearing. She was found guilty of violating a local ordinance and was fined $10 and a $4 court fee. This however was overshadowed by the massive segregation movement she had triggered among the segregated South.
The amount of people willing to participate in the boycott was more than anyone ever imagined. This resulted in the creation of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to manage the boycott. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was elected as the president of MIA. Rosa Parks had sparked a movement that would change the course of history forever with almost 40,000 African Americans joining her in the protest against segregation. With the success of the Montgomery Boycott came violent retaliation from segregationists. Black churches were burned and Martin Luther King Jr. and E.D Nixon’s houses were destroyed by bombings. This violence did not stop the unrelenting determination of Rosa Parks fight against segregation and inequality. She did not fight back with violence but preached nonviolence to her supporters. Rosa Park’s attorney, along with a black legal team, used the ruling of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. This ruling stated that separate but equal policies were not allowed in public education, and Rosa Park’s attorney argued this should be applied to the public transit systems. In June 1956, the district court declared racial segregation laws unconstitutional. The city of Montgomery appealed the court's decision but on November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling. The boycott officially ended December 20, 1956 after 381 days. This made the Montgomery Bus Boycott one of the largest and most successful mass movements against racial segregation, all thanks to one incredibly brave and determined woman. E.D Nixon stated that in honor of her courage she became known as “the mother of the civil rights movement.”
Years following the Boycott, Rosa Parks, along with her mom and husband, moved to Detroit, Michigan. In 1987, Rosa founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. The organization runs "Pathways to Freedom" bus tours, showing young people the importance of civil rights and Underground Railroad sites throughout the country. In 1992, Rosa parks published Rosa Parks: My Story, an autobiography about her life in the segregated South. In 1995, she published Quiet Strength which tells of the impact her religious faith played throughout her life. Rosa Parks received many accolades throughout her life for the impact she had on ending segregation, including the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP's highest award. On September 9, 1996, President Bill Clinton awarded Parks the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given by the United States' executive branch. The following year, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award presented by the United States to a civilian and in 1999, TIME magazine named Rosa Parks on its list of "The 20 most influential People of the 20th Century." To show their appreciation for all Rosa Parks accomplished, Michigan designated the first Monday following February 4, as Mrs Rosa Parks’ Day in the state of Michigan.
Rosa Parks chose to take a stand, to challenge the unjust laws and inequality of racial segregation in hopes of changing the world for the better and creating equality for all.

It was her brave and courageous act that changed America and changed the course of history.

President Barack Obama revealed a statue honoring Rosa Parks in the nation's capital. Obama honored her by stating "In a single moment, with the simplest of gestures, she helped change America and change the world. . . . And today, she takes her rightful place among those who shaped this nation’s course." Rosa Parks will be an inspiration and reminder to all the pain and suffering African Americans endured to gain civil rights. She will be remembered as a courageous black person of unquestionable honesty and integrity that changed the world

forever.