Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Rosa Parks

Rosa Louise McCauley was born in Alabama on Feb 4, 1913 for most of her life she grew up on a farm with her grand parents her mom and her brother. Rosa was home schooled until she was 11 after that she went to the Industrial School for Girls and then went on to the Alabama Teachers College to study sciences but couldn't complete it because she had to take care of her sick mother and grandmother. She later then got married to Raymond Parks who was active in ending racism and trying to bring equality to African American's, Rosa was heavily influenced by him so she went back to get her highschool diploma and became an active member of National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP).
In 1955 segregation was at a peak African Americans had no rights what so ever they couldn't go to the same schools, they couldn't go in the front of restaurants they had to go in through the back, and they had to sit at the back of the bus and if a white person wanted to sit where a black person was sitting, the black person had to give their seat to the white person. Who was riding a bus one day when a white person wanted her seat. When Parks refused to give up her seat, a police officer arrested her. As the officer took her away, she recalled that she asked, "Why do you push us around?" The officer's response as she remembered it was, "I don't know, but the law's the law, and you're under arrest." She later said, "I only knew that, as I was being arrested, that it was the very last time that I would ever ride in humiliation of this kind." People said that Rosa Parks was "Sweet and soft spoken but made a statement that screamed so loud."

1 comment:

sallyspaghetti said...

rosa parks.. woot woot!