Rosa Parks and Her Courage
“You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.” This was said by Rosa Parks. She was an enormous inspiration to the African American Race. She was one among many who lived in a rough time for African Americans. She lived in a time when equality wasn’t really equal. When African Americans were scared/ weren’t allowed to state their opinions on different matters. However, Rosa Parks was an individual who stood up for herself. Rosa Parks helped the Civil Rights Movement and African Americans gain equality mainly through her courage and refusal to move.
Nearly 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans in Southern states still inhabited a starkly unequal world of disenfranchisement, segregation and various forms of oppression, including race-inspired violence. “Jim Crow” laws at the local and state levels barred them from classrooms and bathrooms, from theaters and train cars, from juries and legislatures. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the “separate but equal” doctrine that formed the basis for state-sanctioned discrimination, drawing national and international attention to African Americans’ rights (Foner and Garraty). Many leaders from within the African American community and beyond rose to prominence during the Civil Rights era, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Andrew Goodman and others. They risked—and sometimes lost—their lives in the name of freedom and equality (National Archive). The most important achievements of African-American Civil Rights Movement have been the post-Civil War constitutional amendments that abolished slavery and established the citizenship status of blacks and the judicial decisions and legisl...
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...9, Parks was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor the United States bestows on a civilian. When she died at age 92 on October 24, 2005, she became the first woman in the nation’s history to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol (Scholars).
Works Cited
Bredhoff, et al. "Teaching With Documents: An Act of Courage, The Arrest Records of Rosa Parks." May/June 1999. National Archives. 16 4 2014 .
Foner, Eric and John A Garraty. History: Civil Rights Movement. n.d. 26 April 2014 .
Scholars, The Black. I Remember Rosa Parks: The Impact of Segregation. 1 January 2006. 25 April 2014 .
West, Malcolm R. Rosa Parks Mother of the Civil Rights Movement 1913-2005. 14 November 2005. 25 April 2014 .
In 1955, and the years surrounding, many events took place during the Civil Rights Movement. Rosa Parks was one of few people who undertook courageous acts to make a difference in history. Her legacy lives on to this day in literature because of authors such as Douglas Brinkley. His book, Rosa Parks, describes her life and shows her accomplishments. Brinkley shows how Rosa Parks is a prime example of inspiration to people in his book, and is evidenced by his attitude in the excerpt, his choice of detail, and his textual reference.
Younge, Gary. "America dreaming: the horrors of segregation bound the US civil rights movement together. Fifty years on from Martin Luther King's great speech, inequality persists--but in subtler ways." New Statesman [1996] 23 Aug. 2013: 20+. Student Resources in Context. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.
For 75 years following reconstruction the United States made little advancement towards racial equality. Many parts of the nation enacted Jim Crowe laws making separation of the races not just a matter of practice but a matter of law. The laws were implemented with the explicit purpose of keeping black American’s from being able to enjoy the rights and freedoms their white counterparts took for granted. Despite the efforts of so many nameless forgotten heroes, the fate of African Americans seemed to be in the hands of a racist society bent on keeping them down; however that all began to change following World War II. Thousands of African American men returned from Europe with a renewed purpose and determined to break the proverbial chains segregation had keep them in since the end of the American Civil War. With a piece of Civil Rights legislation in 1957, the federal government took its first step towards breaking the bonds that had held too many citizens down for far too long. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was a watered down version of the law initially proposed but what has been perceived as a small step towards correcting the mistakes of the past was actually a giant leap forward for a nation still stuck in the muck of racial division. What some historians have dismissed as an insignificant and weak act was perhaps the most important law passed during the nation’s civil rights movement, because it was the first and that cannot be underestimated.
Few things have impacted the United States throughout its history like the fight for racial equality. It has caused divisions between the American people, and many name it as the root of the Civil War. This issue also sparked the Civil Rights Movement, leading to advancements towards true equality among all Americans. When speaking of racial inequality and America’s struggle against it, people forget some of the key turning points in it’s history. Some of the more obvious ones are the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves in the North, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s march on Washington D.C. in 1963. However, people fail to recount a prominent legal matter that paved the way for further strides towards equality.
...of religion, the freedom to assemble and civil rights such as the right to be free from discrimination such as gender, race, religion, and sexual orientation. Throughout history, African Americans have endured discrimination, segregation, and racism and have progressively gained rights and freedoms by pushing civil rights movement across America. This paper addressed several African American racial events that took place in our nation’s history. These events were pivotal and ultimately led to the establishment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The Civil Rights Act paved the way for future legislation that was not limited to African American civil rights and is considered a landmark piece of legislation that ending racism, segregation and discrimination throughout the United States.
On December 1st, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the front of a bus to a white man. It was this simple act of defiance that, arguably, began the Civil Rights movement which lasted from 1955 through the 1960’s and altered the face of our nation forever. Following the arrest of Rosa Parks for her simple denial, African Americans in Montgomery began boycotting the bus system, one of the first major stands against racism in the 1950’s. On the heels of the Brown v. Board of Education segregation trial which had ruled in favor of school integration, this boycott, which proved successful after the seat separation was removed, effectively began the civil rights movement with which we are now so familiar with. The civil rights movement in America aimed to gain civil liberties and rights which were guaranteed by law but withheld from them in society. While the movement lasted from about 1954 to 1968, it was not until the 1960’s that other minorities such as American Indians and women began to join the fight. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s was possibly the most important domestic social movement of the twentieth century. At the very least, it was the most important social confrontation to grip America since the Civil War.
8) Blumberg, Rhoda Lois. Civil Rights: The 1960s Freedom Struggle. G.K. Hall and Co., 1991.
"Rosa Parks Biography - Facts, Birthday, Life Story - Biography.com." Famous Biographies & TV Shows - Biography.com. Web. 05 Jan. 2012. .
"Rosa Louise Parks." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition (2013): 1. Middle Search Plus. Web. 22 May 2014.
Meyer, Ziati. “Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat.” Detroit Free Press; Detroit,
Brunner, Borgna. "Heroes of the Civil Rights Movement." Infoplease. Infoplease, 2007. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
Levy, Peter B., The Civil RIghts Movement, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, 1998. Web. 24 June 2015.
Throughout the African American civil rights movement opportunities were sought to spark a chance at improving conditions in the south. Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on the Montgomery, Alabama bus was the fire to that spark. Rosa, standing up for herself something anyone person in today’s world would do, was arrested and put in jail. While Rosa was in jail she caught the eye of many people in the Civil Rights Movement, including the leaders. The Civil Rights leaders protested her arrest and hired lawyers to aid her in her trial. Although she was found guilty and was fined fourteen dollars for the cost of the court case, which lasted on thirty minutes, she wasn’t done yet. Rosa Parks has affected the society we live in today in many ways, she is the most influential person the black community has ever seen.
Were it not for the leadership of Rosa Parks and Jo Ann Robinson, and the support of the black community through church congregations, these events may not have happened for many years to come. Course Material Used For this Paper Marcus, Robert. The. America Firsthand. Bedford Books, Boston MA, 1997.
Massive protests against racial segregation and discrimination broke out in the southern United States that came to national attention during the middle of the 1950’s. This movement started in centuries-long attempts by African slaves to resist slavery. After the Civil War American slaves were given basic civil rights. However, even though these rights were guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment they were not federally enforced. The struggle these African-Americans faced to have their rights ...