A Face of the Civil Rights Movement

Rosa Parks was a spearhead in the civil rights movement. She left an indelible mark on history with her quiet strength and unwavering resolve. By simply refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery, Alabama city bus, she made a statement that is still remembered. Today her action would not be considered any type of miss step, but in 1955 what she did was considered a criminal act. How is it possible that a seamstress with only a high school diploma could become one of faces of the civil rights movement simply by staying seated on bus? Things are not always what they seem, and this is a true case and point.
Rosa Parks was not only a seamstress working in a department store but a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She worked as a secretary to the president of the organization E. D. Nixon. She had a long history with activism dating back to when she was a young girl living with her grandparents in Pine Level, Alabama. The granddaughter of former slaves was encouraged at a young age to stand up for equal rights for all races.
To understand what made Rosa Parks the spear head to the civil rights movement, first it is important to understand the actual law that she broke. Montgomery, Alabama's city code stated that all public transportation had to be segregated. This code goes on to give bus drivers police powers while on duty, for the sole purpose of enforcing this code. This required bus drivers to give separate but equal seating to both white and black passengers. This was done by bus drivers placing a sign roughly in the middle of the bus separating the races; white passengers in the front and African-American passengers in the back. The catch to this system was when the buses began to fill up, and more white passengers would want to ride the bus; the bus driver would move the sign back, and ask the black passengers to give up their seats. Another element to this ordinance was the way African-American passengers would be forced to board the bus. Black passengers would have to board the bus in the front to pay the fare, and then would have to get off the bus and go around to the back door, then board the bus again. This was considered perfectly acceptable in 1955.
With this city code in mind it is easier to understand why, when she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger it caused such an uproar. Being a member of the NAACP, the organization saw what had happened to her as a violation of her civil rights, and took action. This sparked a 382 day boycott of the Montgomery city bus system, almost crippling the transit company and other companies that were located out of walking distance for the African-American community. When the facts are looked at in this light it is easier to see how this quiet and unassuming lady was able to spark one of the biggest and most influential movements in the United States.

Rosa Parks, named The Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement, was an African-American woman born in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1913. She is most well known for her stand against racial segregation on public buses in Montgomery, Alabama. Learn more about this extraordinary woman.