Rosa Parks and Her Courage

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... ... middle of paper ... ...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 .