Rosa Parks Day – February 4, 2017
(California and Ohio)
“I
believe we are here on the planet Earth to live, grow up and do what we can to
make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom.” – Rosa Parks
Civil rights activist Rosa Parks was born on February 4,
1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her refusal to surrender her seat to a white
passenger on a Montgomery, Alabama bus spurred a city-wide boycott. The city of
Montgomery had no choice but to lift the law requiring segregation on public
buses. Rosa Parks received many accolades during her lifetime, including the
NAACP's highest award.
Famed civil rights activist Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise
McCauley on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her refusal to surrender
her seat to a white passenger on a public bus Montgomery, Alabama, spurred on a
citywide boycott and helped launch nationwide efforts to end segregation of
public facilities.
Early Life and Education
Rosa Parks's childhood brought her
early experiences with racial discrimination and activism for racial equality.
After her parents separated, Rosa's mother moved the family to Pine Level,
Alabama to live with her parents, Rose and Sylvester Edwards—both former slaves
and strong advocates for racial equality; the family lived on the Edwards'
farm, where Rosa would spend her youth. In one experience, Rosa's grandfather
stood in front of their house with a shotgun while Ku Klux Klan members marched
down the street.
Taught to read by her mother at a
young age, Rosa went on to attend a segregated, one-room school in Pine Level,
Alabama, that often lacked adequate school supplies such as desks.
African-American students were forced to walk to the 1st- through 6th-grade
schoolhouse, while the city of Pine Level provided bus transportation as well
as a new school building for white students.
Through the rest of Rosa's
education, she attended segregated schools in Montgomery, including the city's
Industrial School for Girls (beginning at age 11). In 1929, while in the 11th
grade and attending a laboratory school for secondary education led by the
Alabama State Teachers College for Negroes, Rosa left school to attend to both
her sick grandmother and mother back in Pine Level. She never returned to her
studies; instead, she got a job at a shirt factory in Montgomery.
In 1932, at age 19, Rosa met and
married Raymond Parks, a barber and an active member of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People. With Raymond's support, Rosa
earned her high school degree in 1933. She soon became actively involved in
civil rights issues by joining the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP in 1943,
serving as the chapter's youth leader as well as secretary to NAACP President
E.D. Nixon—a post she held until 1957.
Ordered to the Back
of the Bus
The Montgomery City Code required
that all public transportation be segregated and that bus drivers had the
"powers of a police officer of the city while in actual charge of any bus
for the purposes of carrying out the provisions" of the code. While
operating a bus, drivers were required to provide separate but equal
accommodations for white and black passengers by assigning seats. This was
accomplished with a line roughly in the middle of the bus separating white
passengers in the front of the bus and African-American passengers in the back.
When an African-American passenger
boarded the bus, they had to get on at the front to pay their fare and then get
off and re-board the bus at the back door. When the seats in the front of the
bus filled up and more white passengers got on, the bus driver would move back
the sign separating black and white passengers and, if necessary, ask black
passengers give up their seat.
On December 1, 1955, after a long
day's work at a Montgomery department store, where she worked as a seamstress,
Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus for home. She took a seat in the
first of several rows designated for "colored" passengers. Though the
city's bus ordinance did give drivers the authority to assign seats, it didn't
specifically give them the authority to demand a passenger to give up a seat to
anyone (regardless of color). However, Montgomery bus drivers had adopted the
custom of requiring black passengers to give up their seats to white
passengers, when no other seats were available. If the black passenger
protested, the bus driver had the authority to refuse service and could call
the police to have them removed.
As the bus Rosa was riding
continued on its route, it began to fill with white passengers. Eventually, the
bus was full and the driver noticed that several white passengers were standing
in the aisle. He stopped the bus and moved the sign separating the two sections
back one row and asked four black passengers to give up their seats. Three
complied, but Rosa refused and remained seated. The driver demanded, "Why
don't you stand up?" to which Rosa replied, "I don't think I should
have to stand up." The driver called the police and had her arrested.
Later, Rosa recalled that her refusal wasn't because she was physically tired,
but that she was tired of giving in.
The police arrested Rosa at the
scene and charged her with violation of Chapter 6, Section 11, of the
Montgomery City Code. She was taken to police headquarters, where, later that
night, she was released on bail.
