Civil Rights Leader Rosa Parks Copyright 2014 Solène Gousselin

Civil Rights LeaderRosa Parks

Copyright 2014 Solène Gousselin

Questions-answers I am going to make a presentation on Rosa

Parks to sum up all the information from the group work that you have done. That will be useful for the TEST. You need to take notes!!

A paper with answers corresponding question

Questions will be asked at the end of my presentation.


Rosa Parks 4th February 1913,

in Tuskegee,

Alabama. Lived in a farm with her brother, mother and

grandparents. Job: * in Montgomery, Alabama.

*Seamstress: a job sewing and making clothes.


seamstress

NAACP NAACP*:

1943: became secretary of The Montgomery branch of the NAACP


National Association for theAdvancement of Colored People

Civil Rights Black people (African- Americans) living in

Alabama were not treated equally to white Americans.

They did not have equal rights.

Black people and white people had to sit in certain seats on the bus. If all the “white seats” were taken then a black person had to stand up to let the white person sit down!

This was the law in Alabama!


Example:

Segregation (separation)


Standing up for her rights.

“It was a small act of defiance, she refused to give up her seat, as a black woman to a white man, this changed the course of American history.”

(BBC News – 2005/10/25 – Obituary* Rosa Parks).

On 1st December after coming home from work, Rosa was sitting on the bus when the bus driver ordered her to give up* her seat to a white man, who couldn’t find a seat in the “white section” of the bus.


1955

Before Rosa Parks Mary Louise Smith

Arrested in Oct 1955 (2 months before Rosa Parks).


1937 -

Before Rosa Parks On March 2nd 1955 (9 months before Rosa Parks):

Claudette Colvin stood up for her rights.


1939 -

Before Rosa Parks In July 1944, same thing with Irene Morgan

but in Virginia (11 years before Rosa Parks)


1917 - 2007

Treated equally?

"Are you going to stand up?" bus driver James Blake, asked.

"No," she answered.

"Well, by God," the driver replied, "I'm going to have you arrested."

"You may do that," Mrs Parks responded.


What do you think this shows of Rosa Park’s personality?

Arrested

Guilty* : black people had to give up their bus seats to whites

Rosa Parks was fined* $10/14.

Rosa was bailed* from jail by her friend, Mr E.D. Nixon. (Another civil rights leader.)

*bailed: released


(breaking the law)

Boycott of the Bus SystemTo boycott : to refuse to buy something or to take

part in something as a way of protesting.

By boycotting the buses they hoped to change the laws of segregation. The buses depended on African-Americans to keep their business running.


Non-violent Protest The boycott went on for 13 months. (#days?)

African-American people (about 90% of the African-American community) in Montgomery, Alabama, found other ways to get to work (+/- 40,000 black people).

How else do you think they got to work?

Walked Cycled Shared cars/carpooled*


Success! The boycott ended when the U.S. Supreme

Court ruled that the SEGREGATION laws on Alabama buses were not legal.

African- Americans walking to work, boycotting the buses.


An Inspiration to Others

Rosa was given the nickname*:

Inspiration*: an idea or act which affects others to act in a similar way.

She inspired Martin Luther King and others to protest for equal rights in America.

1963: Washington March


“The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement”

An Inspiration to Others


1965: The Selma March

“I had a right” 24th October 2005 She will be remembered for standing up for

what she believed inspiring others to change the world for better.

“The real reason of my not standing up was I felt that I had a right to be treated as any other passenger.”

Rosa Parks, 1992.


Documents

Civil Rights Leader Rosa Parks Copyright 2014 Solène Gousselin