Student Essay on Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks

Essay

Rosa Parks was born, Rosa Louise McCauley on Feb. 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama to her parents, James and Leona McCauley. James was a carpenter and Leona was a teacher who always told her to "take advantage of the opportunities, no matter how few there are." Her father left Rosa and her mother when Rosa was very young. Rosa married a barber named Raymond Parks who was an extreme activist in black voter registration and other civil rights causes. He and Rosa became very involved with the NAACP during their lives together and Rosa became secretary to the president of the organization for a period of time. Rosa's activist tendencies came out on the famous night of December 1, 1955 when she was riding the bus home from her workplace, where she was a seamstress, and was confronted by a white passenger to get up and move from her seat to the back of the bus. She refused to move and was arrested. This event sparked the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement and a series of protests to come in the next couple of decades. Because of Rosa taking a stand on that Montgomery bus, the segregation of buses in the city of Montgomery was declared unconstitutional and banned, just a year later. Rosa Louise Parks was one of the founders of the Civil Rights Movement and took one of the most heroic stands in history. She was appropriately awarded the highest U.S. civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Rosa currently lives in Detroit, Michigan and spends the winters in LA.