Rosa Park`s Bus Boycott

Rosa Park`s Bus Boycott

Rosa Parks was a black woman who refused to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery. Alabama bus; this act of courage spurred a city wide boycott. Because of Rosa's act the city of Montgomery had no choice but to lift the law requiring segregation on public buses. Through protest and public support, Rosa Parks has become the mother of the civil rights by altering segregation laws as we know today.

Born on February 4th 1913 Rosa's childhood brought her early experiences with racial discrimination and activism for racial equality. After her parents separated her mother went to live her with parents in Pine Level Alabama. While both of Rosa's grandparents were former slaves they lived in a community where there was a separate bus for white people and the black students walked to a one room schoolhouse. Through all of Rosa's education she attended segregated schools in Montgomery. In 1929 Rosa left school to tend to her sick grandmother and later married a barber named Raymond Parks, with Raymond's support Rosa finished her high school degree in 1933.

On December 1st 1955 after leaving work at the Montgomery Fair department store, Rosa took a seat in the "coloured" passenger's area on the Cleveland Avenue bus. Although these seats were designated for coloured people the driver had the authority to make coloured people give up their seat to a white person if there was no room left. As the bus started to fill the driver noticed that there were several white people standing and he asked all coloured people in the first row to move, 3 complained but Rosa refused. "Why don't you stand up?" to which Rosa replied, "I don't think I should have to stand up". The driver contacted the police and had Rosa arrested.

The evening Rosa Parks was arrested, Mr. Nixon began to organize a boycott of all Montgomery buses. Members of the African- American community were asked to stay off buses on December 5th in protest of Rosa's arrest. Everyone was encouraged to avoid using public transit and either stay home or walk to work. Organizers believed that a longer boycott would be effective. An estimated 40,000 African- American commuters walked and dozens of public buses sat idle for months. With the transit company suffering financial loss and the legal system ruling against them, the city of Montgomery had no choice but to lift the law requiring segregation on public buses, this made the boycott a 382 -day mass movement, one of the largest and most successful against segregation in history.

Although Rosa Parks became a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement, she had to suffer some hardship. Rosa and her husband Raymond lost their jobs and were unable to find work again in Montgomery. Rosa moved her family to Detroit, Michigan and was able to make a new life

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