The Story of Rosa Parks

Prologue
Rosa Parks lived in Montgomery, Alabama, where segregation between Blacks and white people was very common. Though a lot of progress has been made, some discrimination between the different races still exists today

Rosa was tired of being treated badly. She decided to join the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, also known as the NAACP. Soon after she joined, she was elected secretary. But this was not enough for Rosa. On December 1, 1955, Rosa started something that forever changed the way black people were thought of and treated.


The Story of Rosa Parks
She never did anything to hurt anybody. Of course neither did most other black people. But they didn’t care. The government and most other White people thought black people were dirty and not as good as them. They treated Blacks as if they owed them something. Rosa Parks knew she had to do something about it.

“Rosa,” yelled Mrs. Clanton as she trotted up, “it is okay with me if you leave now.” Rosa had been waiting to hear those words for hours, or at least that was what it seemed like. She turned off her sewing machine.

“Thanks, boss.” She wiped her glasses and threw on her coat as she stepped out the door. She walked briskly to the bus stop; she didn’t want to be late. It turned out that she was early. Anne was the only one there. She was surprised because usually there were several people waiting at the bus stop before she arrived.

“Hi, Anne,” Rosa said trying to sound pleasant. She didn’t feel that way though; she was tired from work. But it was nice for her to see a friend. They chatted and one by one each of the regulars walked up to the bus stop.

Soon the bus rounded Cleveland Avenue. It stopped and everyone got into a line to get on. As Rosa climbed the steps, she noticed the bus driver was James Blake. Rosa had disappointment written all over her face. Rosa had been treated badly by James Blake twelve years previously. She had tried to sit down on the bus after she paid her fare but he told her she had to get off and go through the back door to the Black section. Rosa didn’t agree, so she got off and waited for the next bus.

This time she wanted to get off and wait for the next bus, but she was afraid that she would get home too late to fix dinner for her husband, Raymond. He always enjoyed a good dinner.

As Rosa got on the bus she stood on her toes to see how crowded the Black section was. As usual, the back was crowded. “Rosa, you sit here and I’ll stand up,” said Anne. Rosa sat in the very front row of where the Blacks could sit in the middle section.

She was just getting comfortable after the first few stops. The bus was almost full. At the next stop, all but one passenger found a seat right away. The man walked to the back of the bus and then to the front again. As he passed Rosa, he stopped with a crude look on his face. Instead he walked back to the front of the bus. She had a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach.

The man and the bus driver started walking toward Rosa. The driver and the man stopped right at Rosa’s row. “Give me those seats,” said the bus driver gruffly to all of the people in the row. The man looked on with the same crude look on his face as when he walked past Rosa, but he didn’t say anything.

At first, nobody in Rosa’s row stood. All of them had their hands together in fists and were looking down. The whole bus was silent. The bus driver repeated himself, “Give me those seats.” He said it impatiently this time like he meant business. This time, all of the people in the row stood up and walked to the back mumbling, but Rosa remained seated. Rosa was nervous, but she was also brave.

“Are you going to stand?” asked the bus driver surprised, but puzzled at the same time. Rosa was staring at the seat right in front of her.

“No, sir, I’m not,” replied Rosa quietly. She looked very sad, but determined at the same time because she knew that she was doing something that would change the way that all Black people were treated.

“I will call the police and have you arrested if you don’t move,” the bus driver said calmly.

“I understand,” replied Rosa. She was sad she had to do this, but she knew it had to be done. As the driver stepped off the bus, everyone started whispering to one another.

“I wonder what is going to happen,” said one woman as she looked around.

“I don’t know, but I am not staying around to find out,” said another as she stood up and got off the bus. Rosa was nervous; she didn’t know what was going to happen. She just hoped and prayed that she would be okay. The bus driver came back with a couple of policemen.

“Did the driver ask you to stand?” asked one of the policemen.

“Yes,” Rosa replied. The policeman was perplexed.

“Why didn’t you stand?” The policeman looked angry as if he was wasting his time.

“I don’t think I should have to stand. I paid the same fare as the man who was going to sit in my seat.” Rosa looked up. “Besides that, I was here first. Why do you always push us Negroes around?”

“I don’t know, but it is the law and you are under arrest.” The policemen grabbed her and dragged her off the bus. Before she was put in the police car, she turned her head and looked back at the bus. People were staring through the windows. The black people had frowns on their faces, but the Whites were beaming.


Epilogue
After Rosa Parks was arrested, she was put in jail for two-and-a-half hours until she got to call Mr. E.D. Nixon who was the president of the NAACP. Mr. Nixon came and paid her bail.

Once Martin Luther King, Jr. heard about the incident, he spread the news of a bus boycott. He asked Black people who rode buses to walk instead of riding the bus everyday. Some people walked up to 1.2 miles each day to work or school. He spread the word by phone calls, leaflets, and because he was a pastor at a local Baptist church, through his sermons.

Sixty-five percent of the bus company’s business was Black people so this hurt the company. The boycott went from December 5, 1955, to November 13, 1956. It ended because the court finally ruled it illegal to segregate Black people and White people on buses. Rosa Parks is still alive today. She is a very brave and courageous woman.