Essay On Rosa Parks

898 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essays about rosa parks and her life

The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement Have you ever stood up for someone or something, even if it risked your own life? An upstander is someone who sees something harmful happening and tries their best to help out without second guessing themselves. Rosa parks is an inspirational role model to women and men all around the world. Rosa Parks has been a leader since she was a kid at school. She never dropped out like many of her peers until she had to help her dying grandmother. Rosa Parks risked her life as an upstander for African American equality, and inspired many others to follow in her footsteps.
Rosa Parks did multiple things to relive the title upstander. She stood up for her rights, started a boycott, and changed the daily lives …show more content…

Although the boycott was long, gruesome, and almost 400 days Parks made it through but was exhausted by the end. (biography.com)
The leader that started the boycott was Rosa Parks, and without her and the NAACP there would have been no boycott at all. It all started on December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks was on her way home from a long day at work. After she sat down and the bus was ready to depart, the bus driver asked the first row of African Americans to get up because there was a white man who didn't have a seat. Everyone got up except Parks, because she didn't want to give in and let them win. “People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired,” wrote Parks in her autobiography, “but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically… No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”(history.com) Parks was done with being treated badly and tired of being discriminated against, she just wanted her rights back, according to …show more content…

It even caused her to move to Michigan to become more of an activist for women. The fight against racism is linked to many more problems in the world. In the words of Dr. King: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” (feministactivism.com) This states that any unjust act can affect anyone all around the world. None of what Parks did was easy, but she set her mind to it and did it. Rosa Parks risked her life everyday by being a leader and role model in her community. Rosa and her husband were both fired from their jobs and they had no income, which meant they had no money for their family. To make things worse Parks was getting threatening calls and it got to the point of

Show More
Related

  • Rosa Parks: Life and Times

    1974 Words  | 4 Pages

    Life - Rosa Parks was born only a month before world war one started in Europe on February 4, 1913. Parks mother worked as a school teacher in Tuskegee, Alabama. James McCauley, Rosa's dad was a carpenter. They lived in Tuskegee and owned farmland of their own. After Sylvester was born, Rosa's little brother, her father left them and went off to live in another town. He had been cheated out of his farmland by a white man and couldn't support the family any longer. Rosa her mother and her brother then moved to live with her grandparents on a farm in Pinelevel, which lay between Tuskegee and Montgomery, Alabama. It was a small plot of land, but it kept them all fed. From this point on Rosa was mainly brought up by her Grandparents with the assistance of her mother. Rosa gave up school when she came close to graduating, around the same time Rosa got married. Raymond Parks married Rosa McCauley December 18, 1932. He was a barber from Wedowee County, Alabama. He had little formal education but a thirst for knowledge. Her husband, Raymond Parks, encouraged her to finish her courses. In 1934 she received her diploma from Alabama State College. She was happy that she completed her education but had little hope of getting a better job. When Rosa had finished school she was lucky enough to get a job as a seamstress in a local sewing factory. Prior to the bus incident Rosa was still fighting. She had run-ins with bus drivers and was evicted from buses. Parks recalls the humiliation: "I didn't want to pay my fare and then go around the back door, because many times, even if you did that, you might not get on the bus at all. They'd probably shut the door, drive off, and leave you standing there."

    Read More

  • The Montgomery Bus Boycott: The Black Power Movement

    619 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although the other African Americans complied, Rosa Parks did not. She was then arrested and fined. The Montgomery Bus Boycott took place for days after the incident with Rosa Parks from December 5, 1955 to December 20, 1956. During this time, African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, in protest of segregated seating. The Bus Boycott lasted 381 days.

    Read More

  • Bus Boycott

    2007 Words  | 5 Pages

    Just think, it all would have never happened if one person, Mrs. Rosa Parks, would have let the bus driver trample over her and not stand up for what she knows is right. In Martin Luther King Jr’s book, Stride Towards Freedom, he sums up the whole boycott very nicely. “The Story of Montgomery is the story of 50,000 Negroes who were willing to substitute tired feet for tired souls and walk the streets of Montgomery until the walls of segregation were finally battered by the forces of justice. ”5 End Notes 1Taylor Branch Parting the Water: America in the King Years, 1954-1963 (New York:

    Read More

  • Rosa Parks: Honored Life and Enduring Legacy

    322 Words  | 1 Pages

    Rosa Parks got numerous honors amid her lifetime, including the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP's most noteworthy grant, and the prestigious Martin Luther King Jr. Honor. On September 9, 1996, President Bill Clinton granted Parks the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the most noteworthy honor given by the United States' official branch. The next year, she was granted the Congressional Gold Medal, the most elevated recompense given by the U.S. administrative branch. In 1999, TIME magazine named Rosa Parks on its rundown of "The 20 most compelling People of the twentieth Century."

    Read More

  • A Brief Biography of Rosa Parks

    1184 Words  | 3 Pages

    She is an inspiring women whose been hidden for far too long. By one brave woman our world will be forever thankful. She spoke the voice of many African Americans who probably did not have the courage to say no to the bus driver to give up her seat. She was sometimes known as the "Mother of the Civil Rights Movements" because of her sense of leadership and justice. Rosa Parks was an inspiration to people because she stood up for herself! Even though she went to jail because of that, she proves to other people that she will not change her ways of living. Rosa Parks is very inspirational to me because she taught me to stick up for myself and to stick up for what I believe in. She is my inspiration and I would recommend people to research and do a paper on her. She is a strong woman who cared about equality. She changed how our world is now of days.

    Read More

  • The Bus Protest: Rosa Parks

    982 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...can by sparking the Civil Rights Movement. Her bus protest and the boycott she participated in was what made her so famous. Even after the bus protest and the boycott, Parks kept inspiring like with her book she wrote about her experiences in her life. Rosas’ death was a tragic one for all Americans because she had played such a huge role in the U.S., helping change many people’s lives and changing the future of our society.

    Read More

  • Rosa Parks

    776 Words  | 2 Pages

    Racism and prejudice have been dominant issues in the United States for many years. Being such a major issue is society, racism is also a major theme in one of the best pieces of American Literature, To Kill A Mockingbird. People, particularly African Americans, have been denied basic human rights such as getting a fair trial, eating in a certain restaurant, or sitting in certain seats of public buses. However, in 1955 a woman named Rosa Parks took a stand, or more correctly took a seat, on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She refused to give her seat to a white man and was arrested for not doing so. The reasons and consequences and the significance of her stand are comparable in many ways to Atticus Finch's stand in To Kill A Mockingbird. Rosa Parks worked for the equality of all people. She was elected secretary of the Montgomery branch of the National Advancement of Colored People, unsuccessfully attempted to vote many times to prove her point of discrimination, and had numerous encounters with bus drivers who discriminated against blacks. She was weary of the discrimination she faced due to the Jim Crow laws, which were laws were intended to prohibit "black[Americans] from mixing with white [Americans]" ("Jim Crow Laws"1). Also, due to the Jim Crow laws, blacks were required to give their seats to white passengers if there were no more empty seats. This is exactly what happened on December 1, 1955. On her way home from work, Rosa Parks refused to give her seat to a white man and was shortly arrested (National Women's Hall of Fame1). Even though she knew what the consequences were for refusing to leave her seat, she decided to take a stand against a wrong that was the norm in society. She knew that she would be arrested, yet she decided that she would try to make a change. Although her arrest would seem like she lost her battle, what followed would be her victory. Rosa Parks's stand was so significant that she is called the mother of the civil rights movement (National Women's Hall of Fame1). Her arrest served as a catalyst for a massive boycott for public busses. Led by Martin Luther King, for 381 days, African Americans carpooled, walked, or found other ways of transportation. Despite the harassment everyone involved in the movement faced, the boycott continued and was extremely successful.

    Read More

  • Rosa Parks

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    Do you know why Rosa Parks is a hero? She helped a lot in this world and if it wasn’t for her our world would still be like in the old times. When she stated, “The only tired I was, was tired of giving in” (Parks cover), that’s when she decided to do something for her and her people. “When that happened, we black people were supposed to give up our seats to the whites. But I didn’t move”, this is how it all started (Parks pg. 1). Rosa Parks was a hero because she made change in the civil-rights movement, compelled to end segregation.

    Read More

  • Rosa Parks Significance

    570 Words  | 2 Pages

    Rosa Parks was a African American woman who sat in the front of the bus after a long hard day at work. As she traveled on the bus back home, a Caucasian male approached and asked her to get up from her seat to go to the back of the bus because he wanted to sit there. Instead of avoiding the trouble and just going to the back of the bus, she decided to stay where she was . Due to the time period, because of her not giving her seat up to the gentlemen, she was arrested and charged with civil disobedience. After her arrest was made a boycott would ensue

    Read More

  • The Hero's Journey: Rosa Parks

    764 Words  | 2 Pages

    This was something she grew up with and was used to, she was used to being discriminated against because of her skin color. When she was 16 she dropped out of school to take care of her ill grandmother. She then learned how to type and took on sewing, where she later took her skills and became a seamstress and housekeeper to take care of her family. Also she and her husband was a member of the NAACP. Rosa Parks Call to Adventure occurred On December 1,1955, while she was sitting on a Montgomery bus after a long day of work.

    Read More

  • The Civil Rights Movement

    1047 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. contacted Rosa Parks and asked her if she was serious about starting a civil rights movement. When she said yes, King organized a boycott on public buses in Montgomery, Alabama. As a result, the bus company agreed to allow blacks to sit wherever they wanted to on their buses. This was the first step in a long process that eventually resulted in racial equality in the United States. In 1960, Stokley Carmichael organized Lunch Counter Sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina.

    Read More

  • Rosa Parks: My Story

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    For half of her life, there had been laws and customs that kept African Americans segregated from the Caucasians. These laws allowed whites to treat blacks without any respect. These actions were never thought to be fair. Even as a child, Rosa protested against disrespectful treatment. Yet, it was very difficult to do anything about the law, when all the law makers were of white ethnicity.

    Read More

  • Rosa Parks

    1887 Words  | 4 Pages

    Rosa Parks continued to serve in the civil rights until she died on October 24, 2005. She died in Detroit, Michigan and was ninety-two years old. Rosa was a great symbol of the civil rights movement. She was a very respected woman, but some people still didn't like what she was doing. Rosa never let the disapproval of other get to her and kept fighting for what she wanted. She affected the society we live in today. Without the protests by Parks, which brought attention to segregation on buses, blacks might not have accomplished the desegregation on the buses. We still honor her for all the accomplishments she had made in everyone lives. Her courage to stand up for what she thinks is right, inspires many young people in this world today. Without her help and support, things today would be different.

    Read More

  • American Hero: Rosa Parks

    1796 Words  | 4 Pages

    When faced with a situation where wrong and hurtful things are being done, people should follow Rosa Park’s remarkable example and not be afraid to say or do something to stop them from happening, no matter who they are. Rosa Parks has shown marvelously, anyone can be a hero. Rosa Parks now stands as a symbol of the fight for equal rights and freedom.

    Read More

  • Impact Of Rosa Parks

    1583 Words  | 4 Pages

    If it was not for Rosa Parks, the United States would still have segregation in the world. She refused to give her seat up on the bus, to help get rights for African Americans. By not giving up her seat to a white man, Rosa Parks has started the cause of the civil rights movement in the United States. This helps all African Americans get rights in America. Rosa Parks got a lot of rewards and had a husband that felt the same way as she did about African Americans. Today, African Americans have rights in the United States, thanks to Rosa

    Read More

More about Essay On Rosa Parks

Open Document