Rosa Parks- An Icon(ic image) A mundane image of a woman getting fingerprinted in a police station (Figure 1) does not seem like a photo that would grab the attention of a nation. This photo circulated through the media after its release on February 22, 1956 and is still recognizable today in the 2000’s. The image of Rosa Parks captures the beginning of a civil disobedience movement that sparked an ongoing effort to create equality and peace in American society. Rosa Parks, like many African Americans in the early to mid-nineties, faced a lot of discrimination and adversity, but overcame it to lead a life challenging the status quo. Rosa was born on February 2, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. She attended the Montgomery Industrial
Following the arrest, Parks was taken to the police station to get fingerprinted, as one can see documented in the chosen image. A jury tried and found her guilty, charging her a fine of $14 on December 5, 1955 (Associated Press 1). MLK used Rosa’s arrest and charges to form a bus boycott on December 6, 1955 (Narvaez 8). King and Parks aspired to create change through acts of civil disobedience and peaceful protests. One can see in the image that Rosa clearly put up no struggle after she was arrested. This image, though released many months after the arrest, helped the cause of Parks and King because it can attest to their claims of creating change through acts of peace instead of violence. Rosa said, “At the time I was arrested I had no idea it would turn into this. It was just a day like any other. The only thing that made it significant was that the masses of people joined in,” (“Rosa”). The image reinforces the idea that she did not want any trouble, but in later years, she has been quoted saying, “The only tired I was, was tired of giving in” (“Rosa”). She knew what she was doing when she didn’t give up her seat, and used her innocent image to gain empathy for her
The image of Rosa Parks symbolizes the beginning of a movement to create peace and equality in America- according to History.com, the civil rights movement began December 1, 1955, when Parks was arrested. The image circulated through the press when it was published the following February and served as a reminder of what people were fighting against. Though the civil rights movement has ended, an ongoing battle for peace lingers, as there are multiple outlets of unrest in America today. A pressing issue that continues to be brought up in present time is police brutality with regards to race. One can look at the cases of the beating of Rodney King, and the deaths of Amadou Diallo and Trayvon Martin (Chaney and Robertson 481) to make the argument that racism still exists. Until one can make the statement that racism is eradicated without argument, the photo of Rosa Parks-- a symbol of an ongoing fight to end racism everywhere, and to advertise peace-- will remain
Life - Rosa Parks was born only a month before world war one started in Europe on February 4, 1913. Parks mother worked as a school teacher in Tuskegee, Alabama. James McCauley, Rosa's dad was a carpenter. They lived in Tuskegee and owned farmland of their own. After Sylvester was born, Rosa's little brother, her father left them and went off to live in another town. He had been cheated out of his farmland by a white man and couldn't support the family any longer. Rosa her mother and her brother then moved to live with her grandparents on a farm in Pinelevel, which lay between Tuskegee and Montgomery, Alabama. It was a small plot of land, but it kept them all fed. From this point on Rosa was mainly brought up by her Grandparents with the assistance of her mother. Rosa gave up school when she came close to graduating, around the same time Rosa got married. Raymond Parks married Rosa McCauley December 18, 1932. He was a barber from Wedowee County, Alabama. He had little formal education but a thirst for knowledge. Her husband, Raymond Parks, encouraged her to finish her courses. In 1934 she received her diploma from Alabama State College. She was happy that she completed her education but had little hope of getting a better job. When Rosa had finished school she was lucky enough to get a job as a seamstress in a local sewing factory. Prior to the bus incident Rosa was still fighting. She had run-ins with bus drivers and was evicted from buses. Parks recalls the humiliation: "I didn't want to pay my fare and then go around the back door, because many times, even if you did that, you might not get on the bus at all. They'd probably shut the door, drive off, and leave you standing there."
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks historically known as Rosa Parks, was born February 4,1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama and past away from natural causes at age 92, on October 24,2005 in Detroit, Michigan. Parks lived with her mother Leona McCauley and her father James McCauley. Ater on in 115 her brother was born Sylvester Parks her only sibling.Both of park’s parents worked, her mother was employed as a teacher and her father was employed as a carpenter . Some time later after Parks’s brother was born her mother and father separated. Once the separation was final, Parks moved with her mother to Pine Level, Alabama while her brother and father moved to Montgomery, Alabama. parks was homeschooled by her mother until age 11 and attended Industrial
Because she would not move to the back of the bus, she was arrested for violating the Alabama bus segregation laws. Rosa was thrown in jail and fined $140. Enraged by Mrs. Parks arrest the black community of Montgomery, united together and organized a boycott of the bus system until the city buses were integrated. The black men and women stayed off the buses until December 20, 1956, almost thirteen months after the boycott goal was reached. The Montgomery Bus Boycott can be considered a major turning point in the Civil Rights Movement because it made Martin Luther King Jr. public leader in the movement, starting point for non-violent protest as an effective tool in the fight for civil rights, and showed that African-Americans united for a cause could stand up to segregation. Being president of the Montgomery Improvement Association taught Martin Luther the skills and gave him the exposure to become a great leader of a movement as large as the civil rights movement.
When Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery in 1955, she engaged in one of the most iconic acts of civil disobedience in American history. She was arrested, and her nonviolent resistance of segregation laws led to the famous Montgomery bus boycott. Although many people hail Parks’ act of civil disobedience as one of courage and great importance, today the topic of civil disobedience is controversial. Some criticize this form of protest as a path to anarchy, and others say that it is not defiant enough. However, peaceful resistance to laws positively impacts a free society because it can help marginalized groups, challenge immoral war, and combat harmful corporate interests.
Rosa Parks was a member of the NAACP, lived in Montgomery Alabama, and rode the public bus system. In the south, during this time the buses were segregated which meant that black people had to ride in the back of the bus behind a painted line. White people entered the front of the bus and were compelled to sit in front of the painted line. Most buses at the time had more room for white riders who used the service less than the black ridership. Yet, they could not cross the line even if the seats in the front were empty (Brown-Rose, 2008). Rosa Parks made a bold statement when she sat in the “white section” of a Montgomery bus. She was asked to surrender her seat to a white man, but she did not move and was soon arrested. Her brave action started the Montgomery bus Boycott, with the help of the NAACP, none other than Dr. Martin Luther King’s leadership as part of the Montgomery Improvement Association. As its President, he was able spread the word quickly which brought national attention to the small town of Montgomery’s bus Boycott. The boycott was televised and brought so much attention that the United States Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public transportation was unconstitutional; a success spurring a more
“Rosa Parks was small as a child and suffered poor health with chronic tonsillitis. Her parents separated when she was young, so her and her mother moved to Pine Level which is right outside the capital of Montgomery. There she grew up with her grandparents and her mom on a farm” (Matthews). “She experienced a lot of racial discrimination on the farm like the time her grandpa stood on their front porch with a shotgun while the Klu Klux Klan marched down their street” (Wikipedia). “Also Rosa Parks and her family were members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, an old independent black denomination founded by free blacks in Philadelphia in the early 19th century. Parks attended Alabama State Teachers College for Negroes for secondary education, but she then dropped out to take care of her mother and grandmother when they became ill. She married Raymond Parks in 1932; both of them were active in civic affairs. Earning her living as a seamstress, she served as the secretary of the Montgomery branch of the NAACP” (Matthews).
The many leaders of the Civil Rights Movement were: Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Thurgood Marshall, little rock nine, John Brown, Linda Brown, Ruby Bridges, Frederick Douglass, Plessey Scott, JFK, and Malcolm X. All of these men and women had a great influence on the movement’s success in the United States and helped end racial segregation. It all started in 1954 in the Brown vs. Board of Education in Topeka, Kansas. The people who were involved were John Brown and Linda Brown. This happened because of the separate but equal law created 60 years earlier in the Plessey vs. Ferguson case when Plessey lost and created separate but equal laws.
Racism and prejudice have been dominant issues in the United States for many years. Being such a major issue is society, racism is also a major theme in one of the best pieces of American Literature, To Kill A Mockingbird. People, particularly African Americans, have been denied basic human rights such as getting a fair trial, eating in a certain restaurant, or sitting in certain seats of public buses. However, in 1955 a woman named Rosa Parks took a stand, or more correctly took a seat, on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She refused to give her seat to a white man and was arrested for not doing so. The reasons and consequences and the significance of her stand are comparable in many ways to Atticus Finch's stand in To Kill A Mockingbird. Rosa Parks worked for the equality of all people. She was elected secretary of the Montgomery branch of the National Advancement of Colored People, unsuccessfully attempted to vote many times to prove her point of discrimination, and had numerous encounters with bus drivers who discriminated against blacks. She was weary of the discrimination she faced due to the Jim Crow laws, which were laws were intended to prohibit "black[Americans] from mixing with white [Americans]" ("Jim Crow Laws"1). Also, due to the Jim Crow laws, blacks were required to give their seats to white passengers if there were no more empty seats. This is exactly what happened on December 1, 1955. On her way home from work, Rosa Parks refused to give her seat to a white man and was shortly arrested (National Women's Hall of Fame1). Even though she knew what the consequences were for refusing to leave her seat, she decided to take a stand against a wrong that was the norm in society. She knew that she would be arrested, yet she decided that she would try to make a change. Although her arrest would seem like she lost her battle, what followed would be her victory. Rosa Parks's stand was so significant that she is called the mother of the civil rights movement (National Women's Hall of Fame1). Her arrest served as a catalyst for a massive boycott for public busses. Led by Martin Luther King, for 381 days, African Americans carpooled, walked, or found other ways of transportation. Despite the harassment everyone involved in the movement faced, the boycott continued and was extremely successful.
Rosa Parks was an African-American women who was tired of being treated differently just because of her skin color. She was a very kind woman who fought against all the laws and segregation. Rosa was born in 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama and died in 2005 in Detroit, Michigan (RM, plc. "Rosa (Louise McCauley) Parks"4). She did something that broke the law at the time but it changed this place and its keeps being an impact to everyone now in present days (Armentrout, DavidArmentrout, Patricia. "ALABAMA: Rosa Parks."1 ). She was on a Boycott bus on December 1, 1955 when the bus filled up and the African-Americans were supposed to give their seat up to the Americans but Rosa didn’t (Badertscher 1). She was 42 at this time so she knew what she was doing and she decided to do it anyways ("Rosa Parks"1). When she refused to give her seat up they ended up taking her to jail because she was breaking a law at the moment (Badertscher 7). She went to jail for something unfair, she was tired of getting no respect and treated like if she nobody or nothing in this world.
She was arrested, fingerprinted, and incarcerated”(Jim Crow Laws and Racial Segregation). Rosa Parks not getting up when the bus driver told her to is a great example of the limited rights that African americans had before desegregation Impacting humanity by later allowing African Americans to ride the bus. Hence African Americans could not even eat in the same restaurant as whites until “The Court also
Rosa Parks was a African American woman who sat in the front of the bus after a long hard day at work. As she traveled on the bus back home, a Caucasian male approached and asked her to get up from her seat to go to the back of the bus because he wanted to sit there. Instead of avoiding the trouble and just going to the back of the bus, she decided to stay where she was . Due to the time period, because of her not giving her seat up to the gentlemen, she was arrested and charged with civil disobedience. After her arrest was made a boycott would ensue
Rosa Louise McCauley was born on February 4th, 1913 to James and Leona McCauley. She was born in Tuskegee, Alabama and later moved to Montgomery, Alabama where she attended school. Parks attended the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls, a private school where she paid her tuition from cleaning the classrooms. After that she attended high school to further her education, but was forced to leave so she could take care of her mother who had become ill. After she married her husband Raymond Parks in 1932, Parks returned to school to receive her high school diploma in the year of 1934. Parks also volunteered for an organization known as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). This organization fought for the equal rights of African Americans. Many know of Parks as the African American who refused to give up her seat to a white man on the Montgomery City Bus in the year 1955, leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Parks once stated, “People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not physically tired, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me being old. I was forty- two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in” (Parks). She continued to refuse to move from her seat on the bus, even after the driver of the bus repeatedly told Parks he was going to call the police to have her arrested if she didn’t move. She stated, “Arrest me for sitting on a bus? You may do that” (Parks). As soon as the police arrived, she was arrested for standing up for herself by refusing to move out of her seat on the bus. Parks was fined $10.00 plus $4.00 in court fees, and was given a date to ap...
An influential leader of the Civil Rights Movement was Rosa Parks. Rosa parks was born on February 14, 1913. She was born as Rosa Louise McCauley to James McCauley, a carpenter and Leona McCauley, a teacher. She was born in Tuskegee, Alabama. After graduating from Alabama State Teachers’ college, she moved to Montgomery, Alabama with her husband, Raymond Parks. They joined the local NAACP to improve the lives of African Americans in the south. "I worked on numerous cases with the NAACP," Mrs. Parks recalled, "but we did not get the publicity. There were cases of flogging, peonage, murder, and rape. We didn't seem to have too many successes. It was more a matter of trying to challenge the powers that be, and to let it be known that we did not wish to continue being second-class citizens." On December 1st, 1955, Rosa Parks, a seamstress from Montgomery, Alabama refused to give up her seat to a white person on the bus. She was arrested and fined for breaking the law. This incident led to the creation of the Montgomery I...
Even though this happened two years ago Rosa Parks has influenced many integrationists, whether or not in a bad way it was an influence. Rosa Parks is still an idol to many but, some here think she was just a bad influence. Rosa Parks did have courage most definitely but to say that she was extremely brave is nonsense some may say. Rosa Parks was not the first negro woman to refuse to give up her seat to a white person, that was 15-year old Claudette Colvin and she is not recognized by many. This event with Claudette Colvin happened about 9 months before Rosa Parks did this and she was arrested as well. Needless to say Rosa was involved in raising defense funds for Claudette. Rosa, when she did this, was trying to put out a “message” that
Rosa Parks was born on the 4th of February in 1913. She was born in Alabama in the city of Tuskegee . Her maiden name was Rosa McCauley. James and Leona McCauley are Rosa Parks parents. She was the oldest child. After she finished her education, Rosa Parks married Raymond Parks. When she married Raymond Park, he wanted to get more of a formal education. Due to segregation, he only had a little formal education. He thought he had enough education. Rosa Parks wanted to get more education, so Raymond Parks supported Rosa Parks. Rosa Park and Raymond Parks got the education they