Rosa Parks Research Paper

Known as Rosa Parks, the name of her husband, Rosa McCauley was born in Tuskegee, in Alabama, on February 4, 1913. Her mother was a teacher, and had to quit her job to take care of her children, while Rosa's father was working. Not many years after the birth of Rosa, James McCauley left, letting his whole family alone, trying to sort things out. At eleven, Rosa went to Montgomery Industrial School for Girls, with more than 200 other black girls, around her. There, she learnt sewing, cooking and taking care of a house. Rosa had to quit school 2 times, to take care of her grand mother, and then, her mother. Between these tough times and her first actions as a militant for the civil rights of black people, Rosa had jobs in sewing and cleaning

white people's house. She also passed a lot of her time at St.

Paul AME Church, where she was a member, really implicated. At the age of 18, she met her future husband, Raymond Parks, a very light-skinned guy. They fell in love, and got married 1932. Raymond motivated Rosa to obtain her high school diploma, that she earned in 1933. Rosa always had the need to do something for black people's life, since her little age, but she concreted these needs by living and being with Raymond. A full of things happened and ran through after ; being a member of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), being the secretary of Nixon, the NAACP's president, meeting Martin Luther King, being arrested by refusing to change place in a segregated bus, the bus boycott, ... This woman showed all her life her need to see things to be changed, for herself, but also, the world around her, where she saw a lot of

injustice.

Maybe you know about the Jim Crow's laws, maybe not. What's sure, is that Rosa Parks knew these : it was a series of laws encouraging and propagating the racial segregation. Rosa, and so many other black people were confronted to these, in every place they went in their city. In Montgomery, where she was with Raymond, every black citizen, or almost, didn't have the chance to register their vote, received excuses about why, at the end, their vote couldn't be considered. The buses were segregated ones, white little children were mean with black ones, they even hit them sometimes. Every African American had to stand up for themselves, because even the police participated to the segregation movement. They had no way out.
Rosa related about a situation that marked her, where in 1931, 9 boys had been arrested for rape, without any proof, by white police. By the by, the complaint had been done by 2 prostitues. 8 of these guys were accused and identified as guilty, and received the death penalty. The ninth boy, was 12, and spared by a judge, who didn't have majority. The fact that black men and women couldn't use their voting rights really affected her, and she wanted this situation to change.

She had a lot of strength in her : a woman, African American, who defied the police, to stood up for all those black men and women who didn't know how to do, or were too scared, asked a lot of courage, and inner strength. We can take the day she refused to change seat in the segregated bus, in 1955, and was arrested, as exemple.

This woman also showed her sense of work, because all her life, she was working from right to left to receive enough money to live, because her husband has some difficulties with monetary aspect at his job. She used everything she learnt to help her couple getting out of these difficulties.

Rosa Parks showed a lot of perseverance all her life : The first time she tried to register her vote, in 1943, it didn't work, obviously. The second time either, but in 1945, 2 years later, she received her certificate of voting, after her 3th try. Also, an other example is that, even if she had to quit school 2 times in her youth, she came back and earned her diploma, which was a type of exploit in those times.

A lot of people influenced Rosa, from her birth, until her death.

Her grandfather, taught her to stand up for herself, and often took advantage about the fact he was light-skinned, to say things a black man wouldn't have said about white people. Raymond, as sure, influenced her, he was a man really engaged in the fight about black people's rights. Rosa had also the chance to work with Edgar Daniel Nixon, a strong and proud man, from whom she learnt a lot about making actions for her causes. A person that marked her a lot, since her youth, was Miss White, the woman who had the Institute for girls. She made her understand not every white and well-off person is

racist.

Since her young age, Rosa had that flame, that was burning for the equality between blacks and white people. This flame only grew when Rosa did too, and she was really invested in her convictions, and by the way she was trying to improve the place of black people in the community. When she tried 3 times to register her vote, when she stayed down when the bus conductor told her to stay up, as the police also did, when she contributed to the bus boycott, when she did all of that, and even more, she wasn't doing it for herself, and only herself. She did all of these actions, so her family, friends, colleagues, members of the community and the ones that were about to come, who had black skin, could feel well, equal, could think they were humans too. She devoted her life to this cause.