Historical Female of the Day!
I’ve decided that I’m going to post and article that I have read about a famous historical figure every so often. And I’m going to start with Mrs. Rosa Parks. i hope you find it enjoyable!
On 1 December 1955, Rosa Parks had just finished her shift as a department store seamstress, and she was pooped. When the bus came, she paid her fare and took a seat, and when the driver announced that blacks had to get up so whites could sit down, Rosa Parks said no. That was the law, but she wasn’t the first black passenger to say no. She wasn’t the first to be tossed off the bus and arrested. Rosa Parks, though, was happily married, gainfully employed, attractive but serious, and a member of the NAACP— a perfect combination to get the world’s attention. 35,000 flyers were mimeographed overnight, and the next morning Montgomery’s blacks began boycotting the bus company.
Parks was quickly fired. Very few blacks rode the bus after that, and many rode mules or got very sore feet. Black cabbies picked up black passengers for 10¢ (the same fare the bus company charged), and found their insurance canceled. Martin Luther King Jr. made speeches, and his house was firebombed. Two white men, Raymond D. York and Sonny Kyle Livingston, confessed to the bombing, but were acquitted anyway. Other whites spoke out against the violence, and it eventually subsided. Fifty-five weeks after the boycott began, the Supreme Court ruled that since blacks and whites paid the same fare, they had the same right to a seat, and on 20 December 1956, Mrs. Parks paid her 10¢ and sat wherever she pleased.
To find out more about Rosa Parks just go to NNDB.com and search for Rosa Parks
3 years ago