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Rosa Parks
African American Struggle for Equality:
A Civil Rights Hero
Name
Introduction to Rosa’s Life
• Rosa Parks is often
referred to as the
“Mother of the
Modern day Civil
Rights Movement”
• Her story helps
explain how
important every
individual citizen is
in a democracy
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Background Facts: Rosa Parks
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• Name: Rosa Louis
McCauley Parks
• Birth: February 4, 1913
in Tuskegee, Alabama
• Parents: James and
Leona McCauley
• Childhood: Grew up on
a small farm with her
mother, brother, and
grandparents
Rosa’s Early Years
• Education:
– At age 11, Rosa was began attending the Montgomery
Industrial School for Girls
– This school gave Rosa many new opportunities
• “Take advantage of the opportunities, no matter
how few they are”-- Leona McCauley
– Rosa remembers life as a child by saying,
• “Back then, we didn't have any civil rights. It was
just a matter of survival, of existing from one day to
the next. I remember going to sleep as a girl
hearing the Klan ride at night and hearing a
lynching and being afraid the house would burn
down.” -- Rosa Parks
Quotes from: http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0bio-1
Rosa’s Adult Years
• Rosa married a barber
and civil rights activist,
Raymond Parks in 1932
• Rosa eventually went on
to attend Alabama State
College, along with
Raymond Parks, in 1943
• Rosa worked as a
seamstress, housekeeper
and later a secretary for
the NAACP (National
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Association for the Advancement of
Colored People)
http://www.naacpalabamastateconference.org/News/Rosa%20Parks/Rosa-Parks.jpg
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A Civil Rights Activist
• Along with the Montgomery NAACP chapter,
Rosa began fighting quietly for equal rights
and to improve the position of African
Americans in the segregated south
• Appointed the youth leader in Montgomery
– "I worked on numerous cases with the NAACP but we
did not get the publicity. There were cases of flogging,
peonage, murder, and rape. We didn't seem to have
too many successes. It was more a matter of trying to
challenge the powers that be, and to let it be known
that we did not wish to continue being second-class
citizens.” -- Rosa Parks
Quote from: http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0bio-1
Segregation in the South
• Montgomery had very
strict segregation laws,
especially on busses
• Laws required blacks to
pay fees and then get
off bus and board on
the back
• Bus drivers sometimes
left without paid
costumers
http://minorjive.typepad.com/hungryblues/CleavelandAveBus.png
• Blacks were required to
give up their seats to a
white costumer
• A black person was not
allowed to sit across
from a white person
• Two thirds of bus riders
were black
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Boycotting Segregation
• On December 1, 1955
Rosa took a seat in the
front row of the
“colored” section of a
Montgomery bus
• The bus filled up, and
the driver ordered Parks
and three other AfricanAmerican passengers
to move back
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Boycotting Segregation
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• Parks refused to give
up her seat to a white
man
• “I refused to stand up-or in this case, sit down”
• “I refused to move”
• The bus driver then
called the police and
had Rosa arrested, her
reply was, “you may do
that”
Quotes from The Americans, pg 704
http://lquilter.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/RosaParks_4.jpg
The Impact of Rosa Parks
• The news of Park’s actions traveled fast throughout
the African-American community in Montgomery
• Black community leaders formed the Montgomery
Improvement Association in order to organize the
bus boycott
– They elected Martin Luther King, Jr. to lead the group
• African Americans filed a lawsuit and refused to ride
the busses for 381 days
• Finally, in 1956, the Supreme Court outlawed bus
segregation
A Civil Rights Hero
• The modern civil rights movement is
commonly thought to begin on December 1,
1955, the day Rosa refused to give up a seat
on the bus
• Her act of courage and bravery ended legal
segregation in America
• Rosa Parks became an inspiration to all
people who believed in equal rights for all
– It is with Parks example that gives us all the hope
that any individual can change the world
Rosa Parks,
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who inspired a
generation to
fight for equality,
died in 2005 at
the age of 92
Works Cited
• "Rosa Parks Biography." Academy of Achievement.
Oct 31, 2005 09:21 PST. 13 Feb 2008
<http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0bio1>.
• "Meet Rosa Parks." Scholastic. 13 Feb 2008
<http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4
809>.