Read Aloud–Rosa Parks: The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement

Show image 6A-1: Rosa Parks

Rosa Louise Parks was born a long time ago, in 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama.
Her family name was McCauley. Rosa and her family were African American.
Rosa grew up on a small farm with her brother, mother, and grandparents.
Rosa was a happy child. She loved her family. However, Rosa lived at a
time and in a place where African Americans faced discrimination. This
was especially true in the South, where Rosa lived, because in that part of
the United States there was segregation. Because of segregation, African
Americans and white people did not go to the same schools, eat at the
same restaurants, or go to the same movie theaters. When traveling by bus,
African Americans were expected to sit in certain seats. It was as if African
Americans and white people lived in different worlds.

Show image 6A-2: Example of segregation in the South

When Rosa was a little girl, she attended a school that was just for African
American children. It was an old, one-room schoolhouse that only held
classes for five months of each year. Far too often there weren’t enough
desks or school supplies for the students. Rosa noticed that buses took
white children to the new school near where she lived.
When Rosa was eleven years old, she was sent to Montgomery, Alabama, to
continue her studies. But when she was sixteen, Rosa had to leave school to
care for her grandmother and her mother who had both become ill. To help
support the family, Rosa worked in a shirt factory.

Show image 6A-3: NAACP activists, including Thurgood Marshall

When Rosa was nineteen, she married Raymond Parks. Raymond was a
barber. He was also actively involved in the Montgomery chapter of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). This
organization wanted to make life in the United States fairer and safer for all
African Americans and end segregation in the South. Rosa also became
involved and served as the Montgomery chapter secretary. In addition, she
returned to high school to earn her high school diploma.
Then came the day in Rosa’s life when she stood up for what was right.
Actually, Rosa did not stand up, and that’s the reason why we remember
and honor Rosa Parks to this day.

Show image 6A-4: Rosa boarding the bus

The evening of December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, was cold. The
streets were full of people shopping or making their way home from work. By
this time, Rosa had a job as a seamstress at a local department store. Her
day had just ended, and she had rushed to catch the city bus that would take
her home. As Rosa boarded the bus, she could see that it was already quite
full. Because the section at the back of the bus where African Americans
usually sat was so full, Rosa found a seat near the middle of the bus.

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 Show image 6A-5: Rosa sitting on the bus

The seat Rosa found was just behind the seats reserved for white people.
Before long, all the seats on the bus were full and several white people were
left standing. Back then, the bus driver had the authority, or power, to move
people, and African Americans were the first to be moved.
The bus driver noticed the people standing and ordered several African
American people on the bus to give up their seats. All of them did as he
asked except for Rosa. When the bus driver told Rosa that if she did not
stand up, he would call the police to come and arrest her, she quietly
responded, “You may do that.” When he asked her one more time to stand
up, Rosa responded by saying, “I don’t think I should have to stand up.”

Show image 6A-6: Rosa being fingerprinted

The bus driver made the call, and before long, a police officer arrived. The
officer wanted to know why she would not give up her seat. Rosa responded
by asking the officer a question. “Why are you always pushing us around?”
she asked. Rosa was arrested and taken to the police headquarters. Later
that night she was released on bail.
The law at that time in Alabama gave bus drivers the right to assign seats,
and it also gave them the right to carry guns. As a result, many African
American people felt threatened and were frightened to challenge this
practice, but Rosa had done so. Rosa later said that she had not planned
to protest, but in that moment, her desire for civil rights and her sense of
injustice drove her to make that decision. “When I made that decision,” Rosa
said, “I knew that I had the strength of my ancestors with me.”
This was the moment that changed history. Rosa had refused to move, and
now others would show their support for her.

Show image 6A-7: Crowds of people walked to work

It was decided that the hundreds of African Americans who rode the city
buses to work would walk instead. This kind of action is called a boycott.
The NAACP began to organize what became known as the Montgomery
Bus Boycott. Montgomery Bus Boycott. African American women’s groups
began to organize, too.

Show image 6A-8: Rosa and Martin Luther King Jr.

A young man named Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the boycott. Dr. King
said, “We will walk until justice runs down like water and righteousness like a
mighty stream.” Beginning on December 5, 1955, people refused to ride the
city buses in Montgomery.
The boycott lasted for 382 days. Without passengers to ride the buses, the
buses couldn’t afford to run. At that time in Montgomery, more than seven
out of every ten riders on buses were African American. Businesses were
disrupted. Many white people supported the boycott, too.
On November 13, 1956, the United States Supreme Court decided that

46 Unit 1 | Lesson 1 Grade 4 | Core Knowledge Language Arts

 Montgomery’s segregated bus seating was unconstitutional. That meant
that it was against the law. A court order was served on December 20,
1956, and the boycott ended the next day. After that, buses were integrated
and African American people could sit wherever they wanted. That boycott
became a powerful way for people to peacefully protest.

Show image 6A-9: Map with Michigan and Alabama highlighted

Rosa Parks’s actions helped to start the civil rights movement. In fact,
Rosa became known as the “mother of the civil rights movement.” 15 Rosa
remained an active member of the NAACP and other civil rights groups.
She showed her support for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by participating in
civil rights marches. Rosa became a member of the staff of a Michigan
congressman. She worked in his office for twenty-three years— from 1965
until she retired in 1988. Rosa also founded an institution to help young
people complete their education.

Show image 6A-10: Rosa receiving the Medal of Freedom

In her lifetime, Rosa received several awards for her courage and her work.
In 1979, the NAACP awarded Rosa its Spingarn Medal.
Rosa also received two of the U.S. government’s most important civilian
honors, or those honors given to people who aren’t serving in our military.
Rosa received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 and the
Congressional Gold Medal of Honor in 1999. Rosa once said, “I’d see the
bus pass every day. But to me, that was a way of life; we had no choice but
to accept what was the custom. The bus was among the first ways I realized
there was a black world and a white world.” Incredibly, by her own actions,
Rosa Parks changed that world. Rosa became a symbol of the power of
nonviolence. Her quiet, courageous act changed America and changed the
course of history.

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