10 questions · Society & Everyday
Rosa Parks is born in the southern United States in 1913, in an era of strict racial segregation. In the state of Alabama a system of laws disadvantages Black people in daily life: separate schools, separate waiting rooms and on buses, Black passengers have to sit at the back and give up their seats to white people. Parks works as a seamstress and has long been active in the civil-rights movement. On 1 December 1955 comes the moment that makes history. On her way home on a bus in Montgomery, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white passenger. She stays calmly seated and is arrested. Her quiet, determined disobedience becomes the spark that ignites an entire movement. In response to her arrest, the Black community of Montgomery organises a boycott of the city buses. For over a year, 381 days, tens of thousands of people refuse to ride the buses, walking instead or forming car pools. A young pastor named Martin Luther King becomes a leading figure of the protest. In the end the Supreme Court declares segregation on buses unconstitutional. Rosa Parks becomes the "mother of the civil-rights movement". Her act shows how a single, dignified refusal can move millions. Until her death in 2005 she remains a respected voice for equality; she is the first woman ever to lie in state at the US Capitol: a rare national honour.
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refusing to give up her bus seat
She was arrested as a result: her quiet disobedience ignited a movement.
💡 Did you know? On 1 December 1955 Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man and was arrested.
Montgomery (Alabama)
Strict segregation laws applied there at the time.
💡 Did you know? In Montgomery, Alabama, Black people had to sit at the back of the bus and yield to whites: Parks openly challenged the rule.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Her arrest sparked the 381-day Montgomery bus boycott, in which Black residents consistently avoided the buses.
💡 Did you know? The boycott lasted 381 days: over a year.
Martin Luther King
The young pastor became one of the central voices of the protest.
💡 Did you know? The young pastor Martin Luther King rose through the bus boycott to become a leader of the civil rights movement.
racial segregation
Separate schools, waiting rooms and bus seats disadvantaged the Black population.
💡 Did you know? Parks's protest was against the „Jim Crow“ laws that discriminated against Black people throughout the South.
segregation on buses banned
An important victory for the early civil-rights movement.
💡 Did you know? In 1956 the Supreme Court declared bus segregation unconstitutional: a major victory for the movement.
mother of the civil-rights movement
For her brave stand Rosa Parks is often called the „mother of the civil rights movement.“
💡 Did you know? In 2005 she became the first woman ever to lie in state at the US Capitol.
seamstress
She had been active in the civil-rights movement even before 1955.
💡 Did you know? Parks was no chance passenger but an experienced civil rights activist who worked as a seamstress.
Foto: John Mathew Smith · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks (1913 to 2005) was an American civil rights activist whose refusal to give up her bus seat became a symbol of the fight against segregation.
💡 Did you know? After her death in 2005 Parks became the first woman ever to lie in honour in the US Capitol: a distinction otherwise reserved for statesmen.
1913
Born: 4 February 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama
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