Rosa+Parks

**__Would civil rights history have been different if Rosa Parks had not refused to sit at the back of the bus in Montgomery, AL? __ **   This question is important to U.S. History because Rosa Parks stood up against something she didn’t believe in and it took a lot of guts for her to do so. People, especially Blacks, were very impressed with what she did, and it had a big impact on the people then. It showed people, from that time period and now, that you can make a big impact just by doing something little. This question is very important to U.S. History in many different ways. **~HL-SOTH~**   This question is important to the history of America for many different reasons. Rosa Parks believed Blacks and Whites should be considered equal. She stood up for her herself, by refusing to give her spot to a White man. She influenced many Blacks to stand up for themselves and helped them relies they could do anything they set their minds to and in this cause it was gaining rights, that would make them equal to Whites. If she didn't do what she did, the Blacks might not have had the courage to protest about the way they were treated. "She set events in motion that would lead to a a social revolution of monumental proportions" as Ralph Abernathy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Abernathy) had written. **JoS-SOTH** 
 * Made by ~JoS-SOTH~ and ~HL-SOTH~ ** 
 * Why is this question important to U.S. History? **

On December 1, 1955, a African American woman named Rosa Parks refused to give her seat to a White man in Montgomery, Alabama. Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give her seat to a White man, which at this time was against the law. This arrest caused many Blacks to protest or boycott against the city buses in Montgomery and over other topics. The blacks began to realize that they needed to do something to get the rights they wanted, instead of doing nothing and waiting for someone else to do it. Rosa Parks didn't plan for this kind of protest, but it was a nonviolent way to protest, as another African American was handling it, Martin Luther King Jr. Rosa Parks helped Marin Luther King Jr. and the Montgomery Improvement Association because of what she did. (http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/brown/brown-aftermath.html ) **JoS-SOTH** <span style="font-size: 121%; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 121%; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Her arrest helped bring about the "Civil Rights Movement" and helped introduce the public to Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. used Rosa Parks many times, for an example of a person who was standing up for her rights as a Black. The boycott, that she started lasted for about a year or so, and it brought about the //Brown vs. Board// <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="font-size: 121%; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">(a Supreme Court decision) case. This decision declared the "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal". After //Brown vs. Board,// many schools in the border states merged with the African Americans peacefully, but in other school areas violence did break out. Even a few colleges welcomed African Americans into previous all-white schools, as a result of the //Brown vs. Board// case decision. (http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0405-6/brown.html) <span style="font-size: 121%; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">**JoS-SOTH** <span style="font-size: 121%; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="font-size: 110%; font-family: Georgia,serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">If Rosa Parks hadn't sat down on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama many things might not have occurred in our U.S history. For one, the boycott wouldn't have happened because she was the one who caused it to take place. If the boycott hadn't taken place schools wouldn't have allowed blacks to be apart of the schools for the whites. Life would be very different for the African Americans if Rosa Parks hadn't stood up for her rights and have it result in a chain of events that would help the African Americans gain their freedom and rights. She made a difference in many people's lives by making a decision (refusing to give her seat away) and that shows how important she is to the History of U.S. I believe that the civil rights today would have been very different, if Rosa Parks hadn't refused to sit at the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. **JoS-SOTH** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">
 * <span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Our answers... **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, an African American woman by the name of Rosa Parks stood up for what she believed in (really she sat down for what she believed in but you get what I mean), simply by not giving up her seat on a bus. She refused to give up her seat for a white man, and the bus driver had her arrested. Many people think that she was tired, and/or old, but that wasn’t the case. As she says in [|her account]of what happened, [|“No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”] She was tired of being pushed around and knew that someone had to stand up to the whites. Her decision to stand up for what she believed in got her arrested, but also brought about the boycott of the Montgomery buses which lasted for over a year. **<span style="font-size: 121%; font-family: Georgia,serif;">~HL-SOTH~ ** <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This boycott brought about the //Brown vs. Board of Education//, Supreme Court case and decision. This decision stated that public schools could not be segregated, and that segregation in the schools was unconstitutional. This decision didn’t say when the schools had to be segregated by, and kids still went through really tough racism from the white students. This also was a major event of the Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King Jr. used Rosa Parks as an example many times, and Rosa Parks really showed that people should stand up for their rights. **<span style="font-size: 121%; font-family: Georgia,serif;">~HL-SOTH~ ** <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> <span style="font-size: 110%; font-family: Georgia,serif;">If Rosa Parks had given up her seat, and never stood up for what she believed in she wouldn’t have been arrested, and a boycott wouldn’t have taken place, and for all we know we could still be a segregated community. If she had given up her seat, who knows how much longer it would’ve taken for somebody to take a stand. The Civil Rights Movement would have taken a lot longer to come about, and Blacks would’ve been treated badly for a longer time. Rosa Parks has shown that if you do something simple to stand up for what you believe in it can make a big difference. People today hold her as an example to take a stand for what you believe. I think that if she hadn’t done what she did we would be a worse community, and she had a very big impact on the Civil Rights Movement. **~HL-SOTH~**

[] Background info- [] http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/brown/brown-aftermath.html http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0405-6/brown.html []
 * <span style="font-size: 140%; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center; display: block;">Primary Resources ** Quotes from Rosa Parks-

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