Rosa Parks & The Montgomery Bus Boycott

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Topics in U.S. History

About Rosa Parks

• Born Feb. 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama

• Died Oct. 24, 2005 in Detroit, Michigan.

• Before Bus boycott she protested “colored only” drinking fountains and segregated elevators

• Member of NAACP– Secretary of Montgomery Chapter

Segregated Bussing:December 1, 1955, was the day on which Rosa Parks took her famous bus ride. Below you will read some of the rules bus riders followed at that time:

•White people boarded the bus through the front door. They dropped their coins into the fare box next to the driver. Then they sat in one of the long seats at the front of the bus or in one of the first three rows of seats.

•Black people boarded the bus through the front door. They dropped their coins into the fare box. Then they had to get off the bus and get back on through the door in the back of the bus. They took a seat in one of the last five rows or they stood in a “standing only” area at the back of the bus.

•If a white person got on the bus and there were no more seats in the white section, a black person who was sitting in the front rows of seats set aside for black people had to give up his or her seat.

Rosa gets Arrested

• On December 1,1955, Rosa was coming home from her job at a department store.

• She got on a crowded bus and sat down in the first row of “colored seats”

• At the next stop, more white people got on the bus and one man was not able to find a seat in “white section”.

• The bus driver told four African Americans in Rosa’s row to get up and move to the back.

• They all moved except Rosa.• The bus driver called the police and Rosa

was arrested.

Rosa Parks has been called the “Pioneer of the

Civil Rights Movement”

and “Mother of the Civil Rights

Movement”

Montgomery Bus Boycott• Rosa Park’s decision not to give up her

seat on the bus and her arrest caused all black people in Montgomery to refuse to ride the city busses.

• Montgomery Improvement Association formed, and MLK Jr. was elected the leader.

• The bus boycott lasted for 381 days. Blacks organized carpools and walked long distances to protest buses.

• The case was taken all the way to the

Supreme Court of The United States.

· Therefore, the Montgomery bus company agreed to integrate their buses and hire black bus drivers.

·On December 21, 1956 MLK boarded a Montgomery Bus and sat in the front!

A hard-won battle:

· In 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was unconstitutional.

Rosa Parks activism after the boycott:• Parks later served on staff for United States Representative, Parks later served on staff for United States Representative,

John Conyers of Michigan from 1965 to 1988 when she retired. John Conyers of Michigan from 1965 to 1988 when she retired.

• After the death of her husband in 1977, Mrs. Parks founded the After the death of her husband in 1977, Mrs. Parks founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development.

• In 1979, Parks won the Spingarn Medal for her civil rights In 1979, Parks won the Spingarn Medal for her civil rights work.  work. 

• In 1999, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, the highest honor a civilian can receive in the

United States.

Assignment:

• Today a historic marker can be found at the bus stop where Rosa Parks began her famous ride. It begins, “At the bus stop on this sit on December 1, 1955…”

• Complete the commemoration. Use no more than 50 words to explain the impact and legacy of Rosa stepping on the bus from that stop!