Final Rosa Parks Blogpost

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks
Jeanne Theoharis
89 of 221 pages
Biography

Quote from the book: “I knew someone had to take the first step and I made up my mind not to move.” This is a quote coming directly from Rosa Parks. I also used it as the attention grabber for my essay, and I think it is a very interesting quote, since it sounds funny. She says that she wants to take the first step, but that she won’t move, which of course makes sense in her case since she made the first step to resisting the laws and changing them by not getting up and giving her seat to the white man in the bus.

What happened until now: This week I didn’t read anything in my book about Rosa Parks because I already have all the information I need. Still, I wanted to write a little more about the actual boycott. On December 1^st, 1955, Rosa took the bus to get home after a long day of work and at that time, there were strict rules in the bus. All black people had to sit in the back of the bus, while the white people could enjoy the front. That day, a white man entered the bus, and because the part for white people was full, the driver insisted that all four blacks behind the white people had to get up, just because this one white man was supposed to have a seat. Rosa Parks was the only one, who refused to give up her seat, and so the driver called the police and Rosa got arrested for violating the law. Her action was spontaneous, but her job at the local NAACP and her strong sense of justice and equality must have influenced her quiet protest. Rosa Parks was bailed out of jail after a day, attended her trial and wasn’t convicted. This was a huge step of questioning the legality of segregation between whites and blacks. At the same time as Rosa Parks went to court and dealt with all the aftermath of her little protest, local civil rights activists and ministers initiated and planned a boycott of the Montgomery bus system. The Montgomery Improvement Association led the boycott with their president Martin Luther King Junior; who was new to Montgomery but very inspired by Rosa Park’s action. No African American rode the bus in the southern cities. This was a real threat to the bus company, because African Americans made up about 75% of the entire population. The boycott lasted for 381 days, until the Supreme Court finally gave in and declared the law of segregation in busses unconstitutional, in December 1956.

Answers to the Questions:

Rosa Parks is a great human being because she took a first step in the direction of a better world with freedom and respect for everyone. One of the greatest things she did was what she is most famous for: not giving up her seat. This might seem like an action that isn’t very important, but as you read before, it changed a lot, and Rosa knew that she could change something by being stubborn. Rosa risked her freedom that day, but in return, she gained a little more freedom back, and that not only for her but for many people. The next great thing she did, which actually happened before the bus boycott, was saving the lives of nine African- American young men, who were falsely accused of raping two white women. Here is a website where you can read more about the case of the Scottsboro boys: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/scottsboro/timeline/
Anyways, she prevented them from being executed by raising money together with her husband and other civil rights activists. The third really great thing she did was establishing the “Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development”, which motivates young people to reach their highest potential up to the present day. This institute is supposed to give them a global and inclusive point of view and also runs the "Pathways to Freedom" bus tours, which show them important civil rights and Underground Railroad sites throughout the United States. She also co-founded the Rosa L. Parks Scholarship Foundation for high school seniors that wanted to attend college. Additionally, she also donated most of her money to other organizations, and that’s why she was never wealthy, even though she could have been.

Here is also another picture of Rosa Parks, which I know I already included in one of my previous blog posts, but it is relevant again, since I not only talked about her actually getting arrested in this blog post, but also, because this pose will be the one that I will be in for the living history day. I’m also going to wear a blue prisoner’s suit, and talk through a glass wall, just like you do when you visit someone in prison.