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RosanParks is famous for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a whitenrider.
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nThisnaction sparked a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, and thereforenplayed an important role in the Civil Rights Movement that resultednin many changes to local, state, and national laws. n
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nIfnyou don’t know much about this incident, check out this earlier post.nIt’s not just important, it’s also interesting!
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nTodaynis Rosa Parks’s birthday – she was born on this date in 1913 – sonI will ask the question, what was Parks’s life before she became ancivil rights icon?
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nRosanParks was born Rosa McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her dad was ancarpenter, and her mom was a teacher, and she had a mixed heritagenthat included African, Cherokee-Creek, and Scots-Irish ancestors.nBecause her parents separated, Parks grew up on a farm with herngrandparents, her mom, and her younger brother. n
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nParksnexperienced a lot of kindness from white people, but also a lot ofnracism and hatred. The very structure of her life was filled withndiscrimination and bigotry; this structural racism showed Parks, evennwhen she was a small child, that the government and the powerful werenagainst “her kind.” Here are a few examples:
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nJimn Crow laws had taken away the vote from most black people in Alabaman and other southern states (even though the U.S. Constitutionn guaranteed their right to vote!).
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- Segregationn was established by law in public facilities, stores, andn transportation.
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- Schooln buses carried white children to school, but black children had ton walk.
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- Policen didn’t catch and punish Ku Klux Klan members, even when they hurt orn killed black people or destroyed their property. (Actually, manyn police officers were also members of the Ku Klux Klan.)
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RosanParks struggled to get an education but had to quit school to takencare of her mother and grandmother. She didn’t get her high schoolndiploma until she was a married adult—but at that point only 7% ofnall black people in Alabama got their high school diploma!
RosanParks struggled to get an education but had to quit school to takencare of her mother and grandmother. She didn’t get her high schoolndiploma until she was a married adult—but at that point only 7% ofnall black people in Alabama got their high school diploma!n
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nShenalso struggled to get around those Jim Crow laws and overcome thenresistance of the registrars. On her third try, she was finally ablento register to vote. n
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nRosanParks took many jobs, ranging from maid to hospital aide, and shenbecame a valued member of the Civil Rights movement. She became thensecretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP (one of the earliestncivil rights organizations). n
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Butnit was not as secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP thatnshe refused to get out of that bus seat that fateful day in 1943. Itnwas as just a citizen of Montgomery and Alabama and the United Statesnof America, just Rosa McCauley Parks, that she acted for herself,nand her people, and all people.
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nBy the way, February is Black History Month.
Butnit was not as secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP thatnshe refused to get out of that bus seat that fateful day in 1943. Itnwas as just a citizen of Montgomery and Alabama and the United Statesnof America, just Rosa McCauley Parks, that she acted for herself,nand her people, and all people.n
nBy the way, February is Black History Month.
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nAlsonon this date:
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nSrinLanka’s Independence Day
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nAstronomernClyde Tombaugh’s birthday
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