Rosa Parks - A Civil Rights Activist

Rosa Parks (1913-2005)

Rosa Parks was an African American seamstress and civil rights activist. One of her quotes -  "I'm tired of being treated like a second class citizen." - I think indicates that it is unjust for people to be judged by their skin color, and that we should stand up for it, like she did.

Rosa Parks was born in Alabama, and her childhood was filled with segregation. (Segregation from the white people and the black people.) There were many rules the 'black' people had to follow, such as not being allowed to sit in the bus except for the very back, and that was only if there were no white people who needed the seat. (Although they all had to pay the same amount to ride the bus.) This is unreasonable because it suggests that the black people were worth less than the whites. Why is it that they have to give up their seats for a white person, when they were there first? (Nowadays the bus rules are if there is an injured/old/pregnant person you give up your seat, and those rules are fair.) I'm not the only one who thinks these laws are unfair, Rosa Parks did too. And her fight for her rights started when she declined to give her seat to a white person on the Montgomery bus.

1995, the 1st of December, Rosa Parks mounted a bus in Montgomery after working all day. She sat in the usual black section, in the back of the bus. After a while of travelling on the bus, more 'whites' came on and in due course all the white seats were gone. Due to the fact that there were no more seats, many blacks were ordered to get out of their seats for the whites. (The bus driver would order the blacks.) Despite that, Rosa Parks declined to leave her seat. The bus driver ordered her a second time, and once agains she refused. This lead to her arrest, which she was later bailed out of.

When other blacks heard about Rosa Parks dissidence, they too decided to stand up for their rights by starting a boycott. The boycott was not to take buses on December 5th. These black people caused the bus company to lose a lot of money, so the laws were changed.

Rosa Parks motivated all these other people to stand up for their rights. If she wasn't to be treated this way, why should they? And they too fought for what they deserved. One of her other quotes, "Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others." This applies to us all, because when any of us do something memorable or significant, it will always be remembered. Rosa Parks showed us that equality was worth fighting for, and she made a personal sacrifice to show us that.  She showed us that we should all stand up for ourselves like she did, to give motivation to others. If we all stand up for what is right, we would have less issues in this world. I believe equality is worth fighting for because it will create a fair world for everyone, creating peace.

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